


Persona 5: Her Tale

by carminagadelica



Category: Persona 5
Genre: Alternate Universe - Gender Changes, Always a WIP, Erika is a jerk with a heart of gold, F/M, Female Protagonist, Retelling, Shirokawa Erika, Tags will be updated as the story progresses, most chapter titles are provided by google translate and retranslating, so the french might be quirky and inaccurate
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-04-21
Updated: 2018-03-23
Packaged: 2018-10-22 08:27:48
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 7
Words: 34,530
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10693272
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/carminagadelica/pseuds/carminagadelica
Summary: Erika Shirokawa was anything but a model student. Growing up, her rebellious streak would always land her into some form of trouble or another. By the time she entered high school, she had abandoned her old ways and tried to live a normal life. However, a single event changed her life for the worse. More so then she could ever envision...Further entangled in a web of suppression and corruption, Erika has had enough and chose to fight back. With the power of Persona at her disposal, she and her new-found friends power ahead with an unbreakable determination. They strive forward in hopes of stealing the corrupted hearts that plague society and free themselves of the modern-day slavery they had found themselves in...





	1. Chapitre Zéro – One More Time

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: Persona 5, the original story and characters belong to Atlus.  
> I am a fan who is not looking to make profit from this work.  
> This work is created for entertainment only.
> 
> Italicized words represent a voice from the unconscious or flashback.  
> / ... / represents Erika's inner thoughts.
> 
> Uh, hi! :]
> 
> So, similar to P3PHS and P4GAS, this story is also a Persona 5 retelling but answering the question, 'what-if-Atlus-makes-a-female-protagonist'. Well, here's my answer, with headcanons applied of course.  
> As with the other two stories, if retellings and female protag-chans aren't your thing, please feel free to hit the back button. My feelings won't be hurt. :]  
> As decided over at P4GAS, I decided to take down the 'She's not a genderbent version of Akira Kurusu' tag due to the open nature of Persona protagonists. As explained over said fic, Erika is basically my interpretation of a FeMC set in the Persona 5 story. That said, you can view her as either an OC, a genderbent version of the protagonist, or even both. ;o
> 
> Please be aware that my writing is not up to par and I am always learning. You will encounter tense issues and possibly other errors that I may miss. I make effort to correct these in a later date. Thank you for your patience!
> 
> As of Chapter 4, my beta reader is currently Nightwing909. Thank you, homegirl. ♥
> 
> I am always open to critique, so feel free to leave me advice and such in the comments. :]  
> And lastly, please enjoy and have a great day. :]

_The contract has been sealed._

 

_The world is not as it should be,_

_it is filled with distortion,_

_and ‘ruin’ can no longer be avoided._

 

_Those who oppose fate and desire change…_

_From time to time, they were referred to as ‘tricksters’._

 

_You are one, a Trickster…_

_Your time to rise has come._

_You must stand against the abyss of distortion._

 

_Now, run…_

 

~*~ 

Many conflicts frequently occur in our world. Many events and actions had reflected all consequences. Some were deemed as ‘good’. Others deemed it ‘evil’. Which was justice? Which was not? It all boiled down to one person, but how would one person equate to society? Would it mean that society as a whole just went with the natural flow? Even if one person was against it, it was not enough to stop a river.

How would you dam a river, the construct of society? Could it be done alone?

Inside a strange world, lights were bright and shone against the inky darkness of the night sky. Upon close examination, a casino stood tall. Inside of it, there were people gambling until they suddenly became aware of an intruding presence.

Hopping from one set of lights to another was a teenage girl. Her long white hair was tied into a half-styled ponytail with a red ribbon, her deep brown eyes scanning the area behind a black mask with white markings. She wore a black coat with white lace peeking out from underneath, her pants and dapper shirt appeared gray and white. Her red-gloved hands were holding a briefcase.

“Hey… up there!”

“She’s here. Move it!”

The girl began to make her move as she tried to formulate an escape route. Voices were ringing in her head as she began to run.

“Don’t worry about us, Joker!”

“Yeah, just stay calm and make your escape!”

“We shall retrieve the briefcase soon enough. Just get going.”

The girl that was known as Joker did not reply as she kept moving, eventually placing the briefcase in a location hidden in plain view. She was tired. Her mind was going a million miles. But she had to keep moving, she had to keep running, even if it meant forever.

“Hey, there she is!”

One of the agents spotted her from the balcony and the goons have begun to mobilize. Joker could hear her friends through the transmission while she continued to run.

“Okay, it looks like she got their attention. The rest of us can slip away now.”

“Does everyone remember where we are meeting up?”

“No worries, I can guide you all!”

As the intruder got close to the windows, more agents popped up and blocked her path.

“Wh-what?! Can you take them, Joker?!”

The girl narrowed her eyes. “I did say that I know the risks, didn’t I? Leave it to me! Sheesh!”

“Just checking! Sheesh!”

Joker ran forward to one of the guards and jumped on its back. She grabbed onto the mask it wore and ripped it right off, which the guard revealed itself to be a strange minotaur-like creature. However, even the size of this monster did not faze her.

“Hmph. I don’t got time for this,” She placed a hand on her mask. “Get ‘em, Arsene!”

As she motioned her hand, powerful energies surrounded her. Suddenly, the energies concentrated into a giant figure that stood behind her. It possessed a womanly figure and wore a red coat with the bottom part of it flaring out like a skirt, its black wings revealed a fiery face and a top hat. With a wave of her arm, Arsene unleashed a dark blast against the minotaur creature, which went down without much of a fight.

“There’s more coming! Get out of there, Joker!”

She looked around and noticed another platform. She wasted no time in jumping to it and continued to run from there. The voices of her friends were chattering, mostly concerned about her. She felt that no matter how many times she tried to reassure them, they were still worried. Deep down, she couldn’t blame them, especially not now.

“Where did she go?! Damn it!” An agent passed by and cursed as he was still on Joker’s trail. She continued to make her getaway until she hit another railing.

“Something wrong? The exit should be close.”

Joker blinked a couple times. “… Through there?” She stared at the glass stained window ahead.

“Yeah, ‘fraid so… You think you can make it?”

She then looked behind and noticed more agents trying to converge on her location. She scoffed at this notion, but she had no choice. Despite the people on the ground floor gasping in awe of her appearance, Joker continued to run. As she reached the window, she looked over her shoulder and noticed the agents were struggling to reach her.

At this point, her cockiness got the better of her as she smirked. “Bye!” She then jumped through the window as people gasped out loud. The moonlight reflections from the window shards glittered beautifully around her as she moved her arms out of her face.

“Geez, what a showoff.”

“You’re so reckless. You know that, right?”

Joker couldn’t help but smirk to herself. Sometimes, she could not help it, she was a gentleman thief and the need to show off came along with the package. As she rolled on the ground to break her fall, she looked up. As she stood on her feet, multiple bright lights flashed on her.

“Wh-what?! Enemies here?! How can it be…?!”

“What’s going on?!”

“Joker! Get out of there!!”

“Joker!!”

“Capture her!”

“Tch! Dammit!”

Joker began to run again. She was tired and she could feel her legs wanting to give out. But she could not allow that, so she forced herself to run even more. A fire escape ladder was nearby and Joker took the chance as she jumped and grabbed on. She had to climb now and run some more. She had to keep going. She--

“Stop right there!”

Joker looked up and noticed the police in riot gear blocking her path.

“Ah…!”

One of the policemen battered the butt of his gun to her face and she lost her grip. She cried out as she fell and hit the floor. Suddenly, multitudes of armed men descended upon her.

“Suspect captured! Don’t move!”

A man that was not in police uniform walked up to the girl. She couldn’t get a good look at him because she was pinned down, but she could tell he was leering at her.

“Well, I didn’t expect to find some damn kid doing this. You should thank your teammate for doing this service.” He then knelt down and grabbed Joker by the hair. “You were sold out.”

Joker gasped as her eyes widened. / _No…!/_

“Suspect confirmed! Cuff her!”

It was that moment where Joker felt that her world had come even more undone.

~*~

Joker was just a code name. Whenever she had that mask on, she was Joker, the gentleman thief with a red bow in her hair and the defacto leader of the Phantom Thieves of Hearts. But like the fictional heroes that wore capes, she had a secret identity. Only now it had been revealed to the police that had captured her. She would have never thought of just how brutal the policemen were to her. Weren’t they suppose to just detain her and ask her questions and that was it? That was not the case as they held the authority to beat her whenever she refused to answer them. They were depraved enough to drug her as well.

It was then that she was told to write down her real name in a confession. She initially refused to sign it due to her old habit of disobeying authority, but one of the detectives went too far. He actually stomped down on Joker's leg with enough force to make her cry out in pain. With enough insistence and the pain firing through her body, especially from her leg, it was in her better interest to just sign her damn name on the paper. There was a fact that there weren’t many people that had white hair like her, but usually, that was a sign that the person in question was a delinquent. She had no visible signs that she was in any active gangs, but the hair was enough of an assumption that she was an outcast. She was one of the defying principles against the obedient nature of society. Of course, this meant nothing to her. For the sake of what she believed in, she chose to remain strong.

“So… Erika Shirokawa, huh?”

“That’s actually a cute name. Too bad this bitch isn’t one of those innocent school girls.”

“Hey, do you think she’s loose?”

Erika’s jaw tightened and her blood boiled as they continued to make lewd comments about her. She had many things to say to them and the aggressive side of her held the desire to kick their asses. But she could not give them the satisfaction. There was too much at stake now. Or was there…? She really wasn’t sure anymore. That, or it could be the drugs talking in her head.

After the police were long gone, Erika rested her head on her shoulder for several minutes. Then, she heard the door open and she picked her head up. The person was a familiar sight and fortunately, was female. If the white-haired girl had to listen to another sexist cop, she wouldn’t know what to do other then putting in a lot more effort to restrain herself. The woman that entered the interrogation room wore a black suit and had gray hair parted to one side. Her reddish brown eyes gave off an extremely serious aura as she watched Erika carefully. This woman did not think that she of all people would be the leader of the Phantom Thieves.

Erika blinked with hazy eyes. “… Sae Nijima...” She knew who this woman was. She was Sae Nijima, the prosecutor assigned to the Phantom Thieves case.

“Shirokawa-san… I should’ve known that you were behind all this. You don’t exactly have the cleanest background. But to think that you have reformed...” Sae ended up sighing in disappointment. “You had a lot of people fooled.”

Erika tilted her head to the side nonchalantly. “...You wouldn’t know half of it.”

Then, Sae narrowed her eyes as she noticed a syringe on the ground. “Bastards… Look, I’ll just get to the point. You will be answering my questions from here and we don’t have much time. They’ll just come back in here and do who knows what else to torture you. The worst part is that I can’t stop them from doing that.”

“…..” Erika groaned a little in affirmation. She could already tell with the current situation at hand, but then again, her mind was muddled and she had a hard time keeping her focus.

“You still look unfocused… Hey, can you hear me?” The gray-haired woman peered at the younger girl. “As I’ve just said, we don’t have much time. Answer me honestly, Shirokawa-san. What was your objective? Why did you cause a major incident? I knew that this wasn’t a prank from the get-go.”

“… Of course you wouldn’t,” Erika mumbled. “You’re a damn prosecutor, you take shit like this seriously...”

Sae’s eyebrows furrowed slightly. “And it is because I couldn’t find a method behind this case that I willingly took on. But, I do admit that you’re right – I wouldn’t believe this to be a prank but I wouldn’t be able to find the method because eyewitness accounts would be too incredible to make a report on. You seem coherent enough, so tell me- when and where did you find out about that ‘world’? How is it even possible to steal another person's heart? I want a full account of your involvement, in detail. Start from the very beginning.”

Erika blinked a few times. She was tired, her body wracked with intense pain and she was running on fumes. All of the hard work that had occurred in the past six months to rebel against society and for what? The moment where her life was on the line? If the police ended up not killing her, then who else? Was there a plan to this? What plan? What hope? There was nothing left…

Then… it showed up.

 

_You are held captive…_

 

A blue butterfly had fluttered past Erika and she noticed it. She could barely move due to the pain, but she knew it was nearby. She also heard a familiar voice…

 

_A prisoner whose fateful future has been cemented in advance…_

_The unfair truth is that this is an unjust game, designed against you._

_Your chances of winning this are slim to none…_

 

_But if my voice is reaching you…_

_Then there is hope._

 

_Please… Do not despair…_

_Do not lose hope…_

_You must overcome the odds and save this world…_

 

_Please…_

_Remember your bonds… Remember the memories…_

_Remember the absolute truth you and your comrades have grasped…_

 

_You must remember from that very day…_

_That day when you arrived to face your fate and unwillingly entered this game…_

 

“…..”

 

_Please… I beg of you…_

 

And from there, Erika Shirokawa began to recall to what led her here thus far...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, I must apologize to everyone that has actually liked this. I thank you very much for putting up with the rather bland and fugly writing, especially with some basic grammar issues. Shoutout to RighteousMaximus and Minteacat for providing me constructive critique over at P4GAS. I strongly feel this applies to all of my writings, so I've decided to go back to the main stories and slowly revise them. This is no different, but thankfully, I just got started on this one. I'm hopeful to put out a new chapter soon, and I hope that it'll flow a lot better. Of course, I still welcome constructive feedback. :]  
> The most important thing I'd like to say is thank you so much for all the love you have shown me! Not just for P5HT, but also for P3PHS and P4GAS (and the other couple one-shots lol). It means worlds to me. I'll do my best to continue this fun journey. :] Have a great day/evening!


	2. Chapitre Un - Un Nouveau Jour

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hello again. :]
> 
> I also realized something recently. If you spell Erika's name differently, like 'Arika', it would be 'Akira' backwards. :D  
> I did not notice that until very recently and that is actually unintentional, so haha... Oh well.

**Saturday, April 9th 2016**

 

Erika Shirokawa jerked herself awake. Her own thoughts returned to her as she looked around. / _Wait… Where am I-- Oh yeah… I’m on a train. Damn, I must’ve dozed off…/_

The white-haired girl found herself on a train that was going to a part of Shibuya. It was fairly crowded, but it didn't bother her too much. In fact, it appeared that some people were leery of her due to her appearance. She wore a normal enough outfit – a long-sleeved black shirt with a cat design on it, a bright pink bolero, some necklaces, a pair of black plastic rimmed glasses, a denim skirt and pink sneakers. It was probably the hair itself, as it was bleached and then colored white. To the average Japanese person, it was a sign of delinquency.

It was this stigma that Erika tried to run from, as the one-time run with a gang dedicated to women was enough for her. That stint acted as a vehicle to teenage rebellion, but she eventually left the gang due to different opinions before she began attending high school. However, trouble seemed to have found her again not too long ago.

One night when Erika was going home early from a study session, she overheard a man and a woman arguing. Her old instincts kicked in as she walked over to the source to investigate. What she saw was a drunk man groping a young woman who was screaming at him. Her threats of calling the police prompted him to brush that off, which he suggested that people like her should shut up and let him ‘steer’ the country in the right direction. Whatever that meant was lost on Erika as her anger of seeing a defenseless woman being sexually harassed like this reached a boiling point. Even though she was told off by the drunken pervert, her decision was made.

And it was in that split second she began to regret it.

Erika remembered grabbing the drunk man and pulled him away from the frightened woman, who stumbled in his drunken stupor and hit his head on the side of his car. Said woman looked absolutely horrified as if Erika has murdered someone. What the girl didn't expect was a swirl of events that would come down on her like a ton of bricks.

“ _You goddamn brat…!! Who the fuck do you think you are?! I’ll sue!!”_

Before Erika knew it, there were policemen restraining her. By the time the word got to her parents, they were livid. They were so disappointed in their daughter that this transgression was the last straw. They have given up on her as they believed that she was always a delinquent and an utter eyesore in the face of society. No family wanted such a daughter that would bring them so much shame.

Despite trying to prove her innocence, even the woman that was the victim testified against Erika. Consequently, she was expelled from her old high school. All of the hard work that Erika put into enrolling that school went down the drain. Then again, she brought this upon herself as some old habits die hard. Even if she was right.

Now that she has a criminal record, something that she never had in her gang days, she was ordered by the courts in her prefecture to transfer to a new school. Of course, this also meant moving out of the area she grew up in. Erika could've sworn that her parents looked pleased for throwing her out of their home like this, as they agreed upon those conditions. For them, it would be a miracle if she ‘reformed'.

The white-haired girl sighed inwardly. It was all because she reacted, and now she was a criminal. To her, this really sucks.

Her parents reached out to an old friend and he agreed to look after her, which was approved by the courts. His name was Sojiro Sakura, but that was about all that Erika knew of him. Furthermore, her new high school was called Shujin Academy. Again, she couldn't find much information about that school either. It wasn’t like she had any choice as that was the only school that approved of her transfer.

 _/How much longer does this train ride last…? The sooner I get to my new ‘house’, the better./_ Erika then noticed a couple of schoolgirls gossiping something about mental breakdowns, in the most annoying nasally tones as possible. These kinds of girls existed back in her hometown, but there were a lot more in this area. Erika personally found them annoying as hell as she leered at them. The two noticed her and then became unnerved.

“What’s with her? And what’s with the white hair?”

“Beats me. She’s probably some punk. Though, the way she stares is scary...”

~*~

The train ride has finally come to its destination and Erika began her walk on foot for Sojiro's house. There was certainly no shortage of people as they came from all kinds of directions, the majority of them living in blissful ignorance. She followed a downloaded map to her destination, but when she reached a major intersection…

“… Huh?”

She noticed a strange application appearing on her phone. It was decorated in red and black and it looked like an eye as it expanded. She tapped it once, but nothing happened. Grumbling, she tapped it a couple more times.

_/The hell is this? I never downloaded this before--/_

Suddenly, time began to stand still as the chatter and movement of the public were slowed to a crawl. Erika began to look around, surprise and confusion clear on her face.

“… What the hell?”

In the distance, she saw flames. Blue flames, to be precise. It began to take a humanoid shape until what appeared to look like wings suddenly flared out and the flames intensified. A fiery visage came to be and Erika could’ve sworn that she saw her own face grinning in madness as it was consumed.

And then, time resumed. The white-haired teenager began to blink as she looked around again. Everyone was minding their own business and there were no flames in the distance. It was like that moment in time never happened.

“…..” She looked down at her phone again. The icon was still there, but Erika remedied it by dragging the icon into the trash can that appeared on the bottom of her phone screen. Whatever just happened, she chose to ignore it and continue her way to Sojiro’s.

~*~

Erika finally made it to the area where Sojiro’s home would be. The Yongen-Jaya area itself was fairly cramped, but it did not reek of any danger of some sorts. There were various shops and clinics here and there. A few of the shops even had some things for hobbies. A bathhouse was there as well to complete the neighborhood vibe.

With the help of a rather grumpy policeman, the white-haired girl found Sojiro’s house. However, she learned that he wasn’t home when a delivery man noticed her. He said that the man ran a cafe nearby called ‘Leblanc’. Thanks to his directions, she found the place easily. It had a nice atmosphere and the cafe also served curry. While Erika thought of this as unusual, she would admit to herself that the aroma of coffee was quite pleasant. With a deep breath, she entered the building.

The inside of the cafe was modest but cozy. An elderly couple was talking with a sophisticated man with a pink shirt, an apron, khaki pants and his wire-rimmed glasses framed his face. His black hair had signs of receding but there was not a gray hair in sight, not even on his beard. His inquisitive dark-gray eyes darted over to Erika.

“Oh, right… They did say that it was today that she’s coming.”

“Well, we’ll be going now,” The older man stood up alongside his wife as he left some money on the table.

The man with the apron nodded. “Thanks for coming.”

After exchanging some small talk, the couple took their leave. As soon as the door closed, the man grumbled a bit. “Four hours just for a single cup of joe...”

Erika watched the whole exchange silently. She also overheard about ‘freak’ accidents that have been occurring for quite a while. Buses careening down the wrong lane, with the driver appearing brain-dead. This kind of phenomenon was unheard of in her hometown…

“So, you’re Erika?” The man turned his attention to the teenager.

“Last I checked,” Erika responded quickly. That immediately earned an annoyed look from the man.

“Well, your parents weren’t lying when they say that you’re a smart ass,” He grumbled again. “My name is Sojiro Sakura. You’ll be in my custody over the next year. I did wonder about what kind of unruly kid would show up, but it looks like I already got my answer. Your parents also told me that you had always been a delinquent, even getting yourself involved in a gang a few years ago.”

Erika began to frown as she looked off to the side. “That’s ancient history. I don’t get myself involved with other punks anymore.”

“And it better stay that way,” Sojiro sternly said. “Anyway, follow me.” The manager of Leblanc led Erika upstairs to a very dusty attic. “This is your room.”

“… It’s roomy. And cluttered.”

“And it’s also on you to clean it up.”

Erika’s nose wrinkled. “Uh… thanks.”

Sojiro chose to ignore the sarcastic remark. “I’ll be locking up each night. You’ll be alone then, but you better not do anything stupid. If you cause any kind of trouble or you steal something from downstairs, I won’t hesitate to throw you out.”

“Yeah, yeah...” The teenager sighed but was startled when the man placed his hand on her shoulder.

“I mean every word I said,” Sojiro’s frown intensified as he moved his hand away. “Your parents may be more lax about your attitude, but I won’t tolerate the same. I can see why they’re glad to be rid of a pain in the ass for a daughter. I agreed to look after you for a whole year, the least you can do is show me some respect.”

“…..” Erika slightly nodded. “Alright. But I can’t promise anything.”

“What, you want an incentive?” Sojiro asked. “If you behave yourself for the year, your probation will be lifted. Behaving yourself doesn’t include talking about anything unnecessary. I am in the restaurant business. You cause any trouble and you’ll be heading straight to juvie. You understand?”

“….. Yeah,” Erika said as her demeanor began to calm down. “I got’cha.”

Sojiro sighed. “Anyway, we’ll be going to Shujin Academy tomorrow. We’ll introduce ourselves to the staff properly.” His frown returned when Erika visibly looked annoyed. “It’s rare that other schools would accept a transfer student with an actual criminal record. You better be grateful. I also left your luggage over there. You need something, I’ll be downstairs.” He then walked off without saying anything further.

Erika looked around the room carefully. There was dust gathered all over the place as well as plenty of cobwebs. If there was at least one virtue that anyone would say the girl was good at, it was cleaning. She placed her bag down and pulled out a red ribbon to tie her hair up. She also found a case full of cleaning supplies nearby and gathered what she needed. Once she placed a dust mask on her face, she got to work.

Several hours had passed and while the room itself was far from finished, it was much better than it was before. Before he left for the evening, Sojiro was pleasantly surprised at Erika’s handiwork. He suggested to the girl that she go to bed as they had to get up in the morning. As the manager left, she began to dig in her bag for her sleepwear. Starting today, this little attic in a cafe was her room… While that itself was unusual, it was a place that was given to her. She also figured that if any basic needs were to arise, she would figure something out. Resourcefulness was also one of her strengths as well.

As Erika tried to sleep, she kept thinking back to that evening, to that fateful night where she got involved with the drunk asshole. She didn’t even punch him, although that was her first idea. She was trying to reform and this was what she got in return. If she was being honest, this may have killed her motivation. She would never be a normal high school girl...

Before she fell asleep, her phone pinged. She instinctively reached for it, only to find that weird app from earlier today back on her screen.

“What the… Didn’t I delete that? I thought I did.”

Erika grumbled as she moved the icon down to the trashcan again. Fortunately for her, sleep began to take her away...

~*~

“….. Huh?”

When Erika opened her eyes, she wasn’t in her room. In fact, it was far from any kind of normal room. The atmosphere was a velvet blue with chains dangling everywhere. As she sat up, she found herself in a prisoner’s garb, with black and white stripes. Her wrists were also shackled as was one of her ankles. She turned her head and noticed that she was behind bars and beyond that were two little girls. Both of them looked identical, one with her hair in a braid and the other with twin hair buns. They also wore blue uniforms and an eye patch each, revealing yellow eyes.

As Erika got up to grip the bars, she noticed another figure in the middle of the room. He sat behind a desk and appeared as an old well-dressed gentleman with bloodshot eyes, a long nose, and a perpetual grin. He greeted the girl with a gloved hand. “Trickster… Welcome to my Velvet Room.”

The white-haired teenager tried to open the door, but it was no use. “Where am I…?”

“So you’ve come to, Inmate,” The girl with the hair buns said, her tone aggressive.

"The 'you' in reality is fast asleep," The other girl with the braid said, her tone polite. "You are currently in a dream right now."

Erika became confused. “… Wait, what?”

“Hey! You’re in the presence of our master!” The twin bun girl shouted. “Stand up straight!”

The teenager glared at her, but the commanding voice of the mysterious man permeated the area.

“I welcome you here,” The man said. “I am delighted to make your acquaintance. This place exists between dream and reality, mind and matter. This room is only accessible by those who are bound by a ‘contract’.”

Erika groaned. This was getting too heavy to be a dream, this felt too real to her. “You better start making sense. Who are you? Let me outta here!”

“Hey, show some respect, Inmate!” The twin bun girl shouted as she slammed a baton to the door, making Erika flinch. “Who do you think you are?”

The man only chuckled at the display. “My name is Igor, the master of this place. You would do well to remember it. Now then, I need your attention. I have summoned you here to speak of important manners. This involves your life as well.”

The very words made Erika stop resisting as she began to pay attention to what Igor was about to tell her.

“This is quite a surprise,” Igor began to look around. “The state of this room reflects the state of your own heart. For a prison to appear as such… You truly are a ‘prisoner’ of fate. Heed my words well- in the near future, ruin will be waiting for you.”

The teenager blinked a couple times. What did he mean by that? Igor appeared to have noticed this.

"You must know that I speak of the end of everything. However, there is a means to oppose such fate. To do so, you must be ‘rehabilitated'. It is the only means for your freedom and to avoid ruin. Now… Are you brave enough to challenge the distortion of the world?"

Erika tried to understand what this man was saying, but his words were lost on her. This should be a dream… Right?

“You did not disagree, hm?” Igor chose to continue on. “Allow me the duty to observe your path to rehabilitation.” He then realized the twins. “Ah, pardon my forgetfulness. I shall introduce the others to you. To your right is Caroline, the left is Justine. They are the wardens here.”

“Hmph,” Caroline snorted. “Try and struggle all you like, Inmate.”

“Our duty is to protect the inmates,” Justine explained. “We also serve as your collaborators, only if you prove to be obedient.”

“We shall speak more on another occasion,” Igor said. “The night is waning… It is almost time. Take your time to understand this prison of your inner heart. We shall meet again eventually...”

Then a bell began to ring. Erika looked around and attempted to open the door again but Caroline leered at her.

“Time’s up.”

~*~

**Sunday, April 10th 2016**

 

Morning has come and Erika bolted awake. She blinked as she looked around. _/_ _What kind of dream…?_ _W_ _hat_ _the hell_ _was that…?/_ She reached for her phone and noticed the time. _/… Crap, Sakura will be here soon./_ She got up and walked over to an outfit that was assembled from yesterday. It consisted of a black hoodie with a long-sleeved light pink shirt, dark denim jeans and the same pink shoes from yesterday. In a cinch, the teenager was thankful for having organization skills beaten into her.

When she placed her glasses on, the cafe manager walked upstairs. “Mornin’. You look ready to go. You probably already know, but aside from meeting with the staff, we’re gonna go pick up your uniform too.”

Erika shrugged as she followed Sojiro out.

“We’ll take my car, but you’re gonna take the train from here on out. Shujin is located in the Aoyama district, so you’ll need to figure out a route without being late. That will be your problem, not mine.” Sojiro then grumbled to himself. “I know she’s a lady, but at the same time she’s far from it to be on my passenger seat...”

Erika’s eyebrows fell flat as she gave the man a sour look. “I heard that.”

~*~

After a long drive, they have arrived at the school gates of Shujin Academy. The area looked clean, but at the same time, it was unremarkable. Sojiro then turned to Erika.

“Do me a favor and behave yourself, alright? Don’t give me any trouble.”

Erika sighed in irritation. “How many times you told me that? I know. I get it. I’ll keep my damn mouth shut."

Sojiro began to glower at her. “Look, I don’t care what happens to you. But if you get yourself in trouble, that’s on you.”

“Yeah, I know...” The teenager mumbled as she followed the cafe manager in the school.

When they entered the school, there wasn’t much activity going on. Of course, this was a Sunday, which was a normal day off. When the two found the principal’s office, they met with the man himself and whom Erika assumed her homeroom teacher. The teenager was mostly surprised at the principal’s appearance, as he was a large man in a rather unflattering yellow suit. His head was shaven bald with a fat roll on the back of his neck. His beady eyes looked up at Erika with a stern expression.

 _/… Does he even have a neck?/_ Erika wanted to ask this out loud, but she put in the effort to bite her tongue.

“Just so we are clear, Shirokawa-san,” the Principal began. “You will be expelled immediately if you cause any problems. To be honest, I was hesitant about accepting you as a transfer student. But then there are certain circumstances… It doesn’t matter what you’ve done in your old hometown or how well-received you were in your old high school, you will behave yourself here. If you are to be thrown out of this school, you will find it difficult to transfer to another one because you will have no other place to go. Keep that in mind.” Erika refused to say anything to the condescending old fart and simply nodded.

The woman with a long-sleeved yellow shirt and a denim skirt looked up at the girl. She also sported curly brown hair and an almost bored expression with her brown eyes. "I'm Sadayo Kawakami. I'll be your homeroom teacher this year. This is your student ID and your uniform, which has already been paid for by your parents. Try not to mess with it too much. It's already bad enough with your hair color of choice."

Erika took the ID and the uniform in her arms. She glanced down at the clothes inside of the bag. A black blazer, a long sleeved white turtleneck, a red plaid skirt… She decided that it needed a makeover already.

“Be sure to read the school rules. Any violations will have you sent straight to the guidance counselor's office. And by chance you cause any kind of problems, I won’t be able to do anything for you.” She then turned her head to the principal. “That is your promise, yes, Principal Kobayakawa?”

Kobayakawa nodded. “That it is. Shirokawa-san is completely responsible for her actions.”

The adults began a small conversation, with Kawakami expressing her displeasure of having Erika in her class, Kobayakawa explaining the fact that her class was the only one with an opening, and Sojiro being told what he already told the girl under his custody. Erika remained silent as the annoyed look on her face became more apparent.

_/Great… I get the whiny teacher. I can tell they don’t like me already./_

~*~

After some time, Erika and Sojiro were finally on the way back to Leblanc. However, the drive back proved to be an annoying situation as traffic was at a standstill. Sojiro, being the driver, was the most irritated by it.

“Traffic is not moving at all…! You’re taking the train, starting tomorrow.”

"I think I figured that since you told me this morning," Erika said nonplussed by the situation. "That's a lot of gas saved too."

Sojiro gave her a side eye. “Is that suppose to be sarcasm?”

“Actually, that isn’t….”

He sighed and then changed the subject. “So, what do you think? The school, I mean. Can you manage it?”

Erika blinked at him once. “Nothing I can’t handle. But we’ll see.”

The manager huffed. “I mean it when I say that you better not do anything stupid. Then again, it is kind of surprising that they accepted you despite your criminal record… Guess it goes to show that your past does follow you everywhere. Just don’t expect anyone to be sympathetic with you.”

“Don’t worry,” the white-haired girl said. “I already don’t.”

“Who says I’m worried?” Sojiro said. “But… if that’s what it’s gonna be like at school, people might say stuff about me in the future, too… What a troublesome kid I’ve taken in.”

Erika shot him a look. “Look, I know I’m not perfect. But I’m trying not to get myself into any more shit, okay?”

“Could you at least watch your mouth? That’s not ladylike.”

The girl’s glare deepened. “You said it yourself – I am a pain in the ass. Weren’t you already expecting the worst when you decided to look after me? Why did you do it anyway?”

“I was asked to do it and...” He sighed once again. “… I just happened to agree to it. I’ve already been paid for it too, anyway.”

_/Ah, so there is some money involved in this. Figures./_

A broadcast came on suddenly and interrupted the intense conversation. The newsman revealed that a subway in the Shibuya station had derailed recently. This affected the timetable and reports of deaths and injuries were increasing.

“Another accident?” Sojiro asked himself. “So that’s why it’s been so crowded today. These things just keep happening too...”

By the time they reached back to Leblanc, it was late in the evening. Erika checked the news on her phone and was surprised when she read the update.

“Damn,” She said out loud. “80 people were involved in that subway accident.”

“That sounded gruesome,” Sojiro commented. Before he can continue to speak, his phone rang. After he answered it and talked to the caller for a bit, he hung up. “Well, since we’re done with what we needed to do, I’m gonna get outta here and lock up. Feel free to do whatever you want, except trashing my store. I don’t need to repeat myself, do I?”

“Yeah, yeah,” Erika shrugged him off. “We don’t need to repeat this. I got it.”

“Good. Because I won’t think twice of handing you over to the cops if you steal something. See you in the morning.” Sojiro said as he watched her walk back upstairs to the attic.

By the time Erika came back to her room, she could hear the door close and lock. She unwrapped her school uniform and took a good look at it. It looked plain, which was no surprise. It even had a tiny bow decoration on the front base of the shirt’s collar. When she fished out her sewing kit, she got to work.

The first thing she did was removing the tacky bow from the shirt. She then worked on the back buttons of her blazer by connecting a little white chain with a cross in the middle to each button. She then gave the summer polo shirt a hard look before tossing it over her shoulder. The plain black socks and black loafers followed suit, which they were replaced by the pink sneakers and a pair of white loose socks. The final accessory that completed the outfit was the red ribbon itself, which acted as the hairband.

Erika went to bed some time later, satisfied of her modifications. Tomorrow was a new day, after all. It was the first day of school for her and if people were already going to notice her, she might as well look the part.


	3. Chapitre Deux – Raise Your Weapon

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi again. :]
> 
> So I think I put in more effort than normal in this chapter, with the feedback in mind. I might miss a few things, but we are all only human.  
> I'm still in the middle of revising the other two stories, but I wanted to write new content for once. ;p  
> As always, constructive feedback is greatly welcomed. Please enjoy and have a great day/evening! :]  
> Obligatory shoutout to RighteousMaximus for the feedback. Wheee!

**Monday, April 11th 2016**

 

The next morning had arrived and Erika was getting ready for school. As she tied the ribbon into a knot on the top of her head, she took the time to check herself out and nodded in satisfaction. With an outfit like that, who needed a long skirt anyway?

When Erika picked up her phone, she stopped and looked at her home screen. To her irritation, the weird icon had returned once again without warning.

“…. This is starting to piss me off,” She mumbled to herself as she deleted it once again and prompted her phone to reboot. / _It should be back on by the time I get to the station. Alright, we should haul ass, Shirokawa. I don’t want to be late./_

Before she was able to leave the front door, Sojiro called her over. “Hey! Have you eaten yet?”

Erika looked at him. “Nah, I’m not hung--” However, an audible groan from her stomach had betrayed her. “Uh...”

Sojiro sighed to himself as he crossed his arms. “I’m not open just yet, so here. You can have breakfast. Just hurry up before someone comes in.”

Erika gave herself a moment to think about his offer. She could grab something on her way to school, but then again, she would be hard-pressed to turn down free food. She walked over the counter to look at her breakfast. “… Curry?”

“What? You are hungry, right? Just eat it.”

 _/Curry for breakfast, huh?/_ The girl shrugged and sat on the chair. The aroma of the food wafted in the air and the grumbles of her stomach became more apparent. “Hm… Thanks for the food.” She took a cautious bite… and then her eyes widened. Before she could think about the food, she began to wolf it down.

Sojiro was taken back by this display, but he seemed to be amused by it. “Even a delinquent’s thankful for food? And you’re actually serious about going to school? That’s something you don’t see every day.” Erika shot him a weird look with a mouthful of food, which Sojiro’s face scrunched up in reaction. “At least swallow your food before you start talking! You really are a pain in the ass...”

Erika swallowed another mouthful before responding. “You are getting paid for this, so you shoulda known what you’re getting into.”

“That’s a lousy excuse,” The manager frowned. “I could repeat myself about your situation.”

It was Erika’s turn to frown. “… Alright, I get it.” She finished off what was left on her plate and she handed it back to the man. “That was really good. Thanks.”

“You’re welcome,” Sojiro said as he turned around to put the plate in the sink. “Turns out that there is hope for you. What’s next, you gonna take in a stray cat? … You better not do that, by the way. And flip that sign outside while you’re heading out.”

“Yeah, yeah,” Erika waved him off. “I’m going now.” She walked out of the door and flipped over the ‘CLOSED’ sign to ‘OPEN’.

~*~

_/….. Shit, so many people in here…!/_

Erika had never been to any parts of Tokyo before, much less Shibuya. The rumors of how jam packed the subways of Tokyo were true, much to her annoyance. However, she conceded to the fact that she would need to get used to this, but it didn’t help that some people stared at her…

It was a long trek, but Erika finally reached Aoyama-Itchome after transferring from Ginza. She was thankful for getting herself to go early, as this was already taking too long for her liking. However, when she stepped outside, there were raindrops greeting her.

“…..” She looked up at the sky to glare at it. _/Does God have a grudge against me?/_ To her, it felt like no matter what she did in her life, someone would judge her. Then again, she thought to herself that she should pay attention to the weather. It was early Spring and the season usually involved some amounts of rain.

Erika found shelter underneath an awning of a nearby building and sighed to herself. “… Dammit!” She cursed bitterly as she pulled out her phone for the map to Shujin Academy, but a familiar app appeared once again and expanded. Upon seeing this, her eye began to twitch.

 _/Whoever hacked my phone and put that app in there better be some skinny-ass nerd, ‘cause I will find whoever’s doing this and-/_ She stopped herself for a moment and took a deep breath. Her temper was already flaring up and the last thing she needed was to go off on someone. If she did that, her probation would go up in smoke. What then?

Suddenly, a girlish figure walked under the same awning that Erika was under. She removed her hoodie and two fluffy ash blonde pigtails spilled out. The white-haired girl’s eyes scanned the other girl, mostly noticing the foreign features and the heavy modification to her Shujin uniform. _/So she’s a gaijin? You don’t see them every day. She’s even taller than me./_

The girl’s blue eyes met with Erika’s and she blinked once. The white-haired girl simply looked away and fixed her eyes back up at the sky, in hopes that the rain would subside. Then, a car pulled up in front of the girls and the window rolled down. Inside of the vehicle revealed an older male with curly black hair in a track suit. Erika noticed the Shujin logo on his jacket, thus she assumed that he was a teacher.

“Good morning, Takamaki! Do you need a ride to school? You’ll be late.”

“Oh… Sure, thank you.” The girl complied and walked over to enter in his car.

The man then looked at Erika. “Do you need a lift too?”

The white-haired girl frowned at his offer. It was already creepy enough with the way he stared at her for a moment, but she did not harbor any trust for most men. It was bad enough that the Takamaki girl easily agreed to get in his car. She elected to ignore his question and turned her head away.

The man shrugged as he began to roll up his windows. “Suit yourself.” For a split second, Erika could see the apprehension in Takamaki’s eyes…

Shortly after the car drove off, the girl could hear someone running in the rain. These footsteps belonged to a teenage boy who stopped in front of Erika. He appeared to be a student of Shujin with some modifications on his uniform too. His blonde hair was in a widow’s peak style and his brown eyes glared at the car that was going further away.

“Dammit! Screw that pervert teacher!”

Erika blinked at his impulsive attitude. “What’s this about a pervert teacher?”

The boy spun around on his heel and noticed Erika. He then wore a scowl as he got close to her face. “What do you want? You gonna rat me out to that prick Kamoshida?”

Erika returned his expression with visible anger. “You wanna get out my face first? ‘Cause you’ll find your nose on the damn concrete if you don’t.”

The boy didn’t back down. “Big words comin’ from some girl!”

That sounded like a challenge to Erika. She instinctively reached for the back of his neck as she kept up with her evil eye. “Last chance or my knee will meet your nose instead of the ground.”

The boy's attitude suddenly changed as he realized how serious she was about her words. “Whoa, whoa, whoa, calm down! There’s no need to get violent! The cops’ll see us!”

“…..” Erika withdrew her grip and the boy stood up straight, his expression convinced of the girl's disposition.

“Shit, you’re a scary chick…! But uh… Didja know who’s in that car? That was Kamoshida...”

She had to think for a moment on who he was referring to. He must have been talking about that creepy teacher that offered her a ride. “… What of it?”

“Dude!” The boy suddenly began to rant about the man in question. “He’s an asshole who thinks he can do whatever the hell he wants! Who does he think he is, the king of the castle or something?

“… King of the castle? What castle?”

“Uh… It’s just a sayin’...” Confused, he observed Erika for a moment. “Wait, you didn’t know who Kamoshida is? Aren’t you a Shujin student?”

Erika huffed slightly. “Judging by my uniform, maybe? This’d be my first day wearing it.”

“First day?” Her words were still lost on the boy. “Does that mean that you’re a transfer student?”

“I’m a second-year,” Erika said. “Anyway, I’m gonna be late if I keep talking to your mug.” The girl began to take a few steps ahead of the vulgar boy, but then her head began to feel light-headed. “Ugh!”

“Ngh!” The boy appeared to have felt something as well as he raised his hand to his head. “Dammit, my head hurts... Ugh, I wanna go home...” He muttered as he began to walk away. When the feeling finally subsided, Erika continued her walk to the school. She kept her phone in her hand for the map, but she failed to realize that something else was on the screen…

~*~

To Erika, something was not right and the atmosphere reeked of danger. The inner warning bells went off in her head as she followed the blonde boy to school. However…

“Whoa!”

The boy was taken back by what he saw while Erika could hardly believe it herself. The sign for Shujin Academy was there, but instead of the boring school building she saw yesterday, a castle stood tall instead.

“The hell is this?!” He shouted.

Erika began to narrow her eyes at him when one of her old instincts kicked in. “Is this your idea of a sick joke?”

“Wh-wha-?!” He raised up his arms in defense. “I thought this is the way to school! You already threatened to break my nose, why’d I want to get my ass kicked?!”

The girl wasn’t buying it. At far as she was concerned, she had no problem with violating her probation. “You’re right about one thing; I can do much worse. You better start explaining this right now.”

“H-how?!” The boy shouted again as he began to feel the girl’s glare burning his skin off. “Ugh…! How ‘bout we go in and see what’s going on?”

“…..” The responsible side of her began to tug as she backed down, especially since it was too early to do something this stupid anyway. “… Alright. But if you try something funny...”

“Y-yes, ma’am,” The boy stuttered as he led the way in. Regardless of the uneasiness in the air, the teenagers began to walk inside of the strange castle…

~*~

“….. Hey… Hey! Hey, you! Wake up!”

Erika groaned in pain as her consciousness returned to her. As she slowly sat up and blinked, she noticed the blonde boy standing near her with a concerned look on his face.

“Hey… You alright?”

“…. The hell just happened…?” The white-haired girl said groggily. “This… can’t be Shujin, can it…?”

“I’m pretty sure that the school’s here, but...” The boy began to frown. “Man, what the hell’s with those people in armor? They just jumped on us, man...”

A thought then hit Erika. _/… Oh yeah. We were jumped on by a bunch of guys in armor… Damn, they clocked me pretty good./_ She gingerly rubbed the right temple of her head, which developed into a bruise. She then began to look at her surroundings, which appeared to be a prison cell.

“Looks like this ain’t no dream,” The boy said, still frowning. “The hell’s going on…?!”

“….. I guess this wouldn’t be your idea of a joke,” Erika said as reality started to sink in. She became convinced that the boy did not mean any ill will towards her or harbor any impure intentions as he ran towards the cell door and began to bang on it.

“Hey! Let us outta here, dammit!” He shouted. “I know someone’s out there!”

Erika got up from the makeshift bed and with a slight wobble to her legs, she walked to the cell door. She surveyed the area and was surprised that the detail here looked very much like some sort of scene from a storybook. The area appeared to be a literal underground prison underneath a castle.

“… I don’t think this is a TV set,” The girl said as she looked around. “This shit looks too real to be one...”

All of a sudden, both teenagers could hear someone screaming in pain. This sent chills through both of them as they began to look around more frantically.

“The hell was that…?!” The boy asked loudly.

“… I don’t think I want to know...” Erika said as she became unnerved even further.

As the wails continued, the boy was not far behind. “Whoa… Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa… Holy shit…! Man, this is really bad! The eff are we gonna do…?!”

“Wha-?” The girl looked at him with a surprised look. “… W-we need to get the hell out of here.” She began to look around the cell. “There’s gotta be something… Try looking around for a hidden passage or something!”

“Uh, uh… Y-yeah,” The boy agreed. “Th-there’s usually one in some old movies or shit like that, right?” He began to feel around the walls for one while Erika checked out the nearby barrels. Unfortunately, the search ended in a futile effort as heavy footsteps could be heard. The duo ran back to the iron door when the same armored guards that had jumped them approached.

“Be glad that your punishment has been decided upon,” One of them said.

“Wh-what punishment?” Erika sputtered. “The hell did we do…?”

The guard appeared unfazed by the clear apprehension in the air. “Your charge is ‘unlawful entry’. Henceforth, your punishment is death.”

“Say what?!” The boy shouted as his eyes began to widen in fear.

“What?!” Erika shouted as fear began to wrack her nerves. “Says who?!”

“That would be me, peasant.” A familiar voice spoke up as he walked up to the bars. It was a man that wore a red cape with hearts printed all over it, his other clothing of choice appeared to be pink briefs, a red pair of shoes and a golden crown on the top of his messy curly black hair. Now that Erika thought about it, he looked like that creepy teacher from earlier this morning, only except his eyes were an eerie color of yellow.

The boy was taken back by the appearance of this man. “W-wait… Is that you, Kamoshida…?

The man fixed his gaze on the boy. “Huh… To think that it was you, Sakamato. I’d thought it would be a petty thief, but apparently, you haven’t been punished enough. Let me make it clear to you that no one is allowed to do whatever they want in my castle.” He then noticed Erika and leered at her. “And you brought a cute friend this time, too… You’re so pathetic that you can’t even do anything yourself, can you?”

Erika began to glare at him. _/Who does this freakin’ asshole think he is?!/_

“This isn’t funny, you dick!” Sakamoto shouted, anger laced in his tone of voice.

The man with Kamoshida’s visage replied back with a vicious tone. “How dare you speak to a king like that, Sakamoto?! You seem to not understand the position you’re in. Your punishment has increased tenfold – by sneaking into my castle on top of insulting me!” He then motioned his arm to the guards. “Execute him!”

The feeling of danger had overwhelmed both teenagers as they began to back off from the iron bars. Sakamoto began to visibly sweat. “… St-stop… Stop this…!” As the guards poured in, he noticed a moment’s chance of escape. However, as he rushed forward and pushed one down, he looked at Erika. “Hey! You get outta here!!”

“Wh-what?!” Erika’s eyes widened with surprise.

“Just hurry up and go!” Before he could say more, another guard kneed him to the gut. He grunted in pain as he slumped on the floor.

“What’s the matter?” The man that looked like Kamoshida stared at the girl in a taunting manner. “You too scared to run? Of course you are, all females are like that. You’re no better than this worm right here!”

Another guard began to pin Erika to the wall and pointed its sword towards her. The girl glared at the self-proclaimed king as he leered at Sakamoto, who was now being held up by two guards. He began his assault on the defenseless boy as he punched him multiple times.

“Take this, you lowly scum! Useless pest! Worthless sack of shit!”

Erika winced as she watched the boy getting brutalized. Anger was building up inside of her and at this point, all she could think about was beating the hell out of this so-called king.

Kamoshida finished his brutality by spitting on the helpless Sakamoto. “Hmph, you’re not worth my time. You shall be killed right now.”

“Th...” Erika dug deep down in her throat for the right words to come out. “… Th… That’s enough!! Stop it!!”

“Hm?” The man then turned and glared at Erika once again. “What was that…? Don’t tell me that you don’t know who I am.” Her defiant glare was enough to enrage him. “You little bitch! Don’t you give me that look!” He then kicked her down with enough force that her glasses flew off her face and she fell to the floor. Erika began to cough for air as she grasped her gut and her knees wobbled as she got up. “Women like you should know your place… Hold her down!” He barked to the guards once again as he looked down on Sakamoto. “She will die after this one.”

The boy’s fears began to enshroud him as Erika was restrained by the guards. She struggled to break free, but it was no use.

“No…! No…! I don’t wanna die!” The boy began to panic while Kamoshida laughed manically.

“Let me go…!” Erika shouted, still struggling. This was too real now and if something was not done, the Sakamoto boy would die and she would be next. She would rather the boy be saved then herself now. This was truly unfair, but all that mattered to her now was to fight back!

Then suddenly, a blue butterfly had fluttered before her. Before Erika could question it, a woman’s deep and resolute voice began to resonate within her.

‘ _What is the matter, child…? Are you content with just watching this unfold?’_

Erika gasped loudly as she began to look around.

‘ _Are you going to forsake this child in order to save your own skin…?’_

_/… Forsake…?/_

‘ _Death awaits him if you choose to do nothing… Was your previous decision a mistake?’_

 _/….. Mistake…?/_ Erika recalled the night that led to her arrest. If she did nothing, she would have avoided all of this. She would have a normal high school life. But… What would have become of the woman? Would her life be forfeit?

 _/…../_ Her eyes began to burn with anger as a deep slumbering resolve roused within her. _/… Hell no!/_

‘ _Very well, child… I have heeded your calling…’_

As Erika continued to struggle, a deep power resonated within her. She felt a crushing force in her skull as she flailed even more and tears began to roll down her face. She cried out in agony as the womanly voice continued on without skipping a beat.

‘ _Vow to me, child… I am thou, thou art I… Thou art willing to perform all sacrilegious acts for thine own justice! Call upon my name and release thy rage!!’_

Erika’s screams reached a pitch to where Kamoshida stopped for a moment and stared at the girl. Sakamoto barely opened his eyes and witnessed her convulsing in pain.

‘ _Show the strength of thy will to ascertain all thine own, though thou be chained to Hell itself!!’_

“Huh,” Kamoshida snorted. “So this lowly scum wanted to die that much? Fine! I shall humbly grant your request!”

At the command of Kamoshida, the guard that held up Sakamoto dropped him. In exchange, two of the guards near Erika pointed their spears at her, ready to strike. Before they could, however, a powerful aura emanated from her and pushed them back. The fear of the unknown began to grow within Kamoshida as he watched his guards becoming wary of the girl.

When Erika regained full control of herself, she noticed something very different about her. There was a black mask with white markings on her face, slightly resembling a bird. She gasped as she felt it and attempted to tug at it, but it was stuck on like glue. However, in order to show her resolve and the vow she made, she gripped the mask and began to pull. The pain was unreal as her arms began to buckle and she felt that her own face was being scalped. She groaned in agony until one final yank caused her to scream and her face was bloodied. As she looked up, she grinned in madness as her eyes temporarily changed to a golden yellow.

“What is going on…?!” Kamoshida shouted, clearly unnerved by the turn of events. Sakamoto could barely breathe as he watched the girl begun to undertake a new transformation.

Blue flames began to envelop Erika as the mysterious voice began to laugh in celebration. An orange fiery visage appeared on her face and began to move upward, revealing a new outfit on the girl. The outfit consisted of a black coat with white lace underneath, a pair of gray pants, a gray and white dapper shirt, and black shoes. Her hair had somehow formed into a half-styled ponytail with a red ribbon tied like a bow and her hands balled into fists with red gloves. Chains began to appear and surround a new figure that took form, which appeared to have a woman’s figure with a flared out red coat and skirt, a cravat formed at the base of its neck, her hands revealed to be black claws, and on top of the fiery grin was a top hat and a slender pair of black horns. On Erika’s command, the creature’s black wings flared out, sending back the guards away from her and Sakamoto.

‘ _I am the pillager of twilight… I am Arsene! I am the rebellious soul that is housed within you… If you so desire, child, I shall grant my power to you in this time of crisis...’_

Erika looked at Arsene with an unwavering will. Never again would she regret any decision that involved an innocent person’s livelihood. The act of choosing inaction was no longer an option! “I do. Give me your strength!”

Arsene chuckled as she celebrated her decision. _‘Very well...’_

“Who the hell are you?!” Kamoshida shouted as he backed away from the incredible power that Erika was steeped in. “Guards! Get up and kill her!”

The two that were still intact rose up on Kamoshida’s command and transformed into a pair of ghostly jack-o-lanterns, who were now hellbent on destroying Erika.

‘ _My power is now yours to command,’_ Arsene thundered within the girl’s soul. _‘Kill them however you want. Run wild to your heart’s content!’_

Erika held nothing back as she acclimated to the new power given to her. When she made a decision by placing her hand on her mask, Arsene unleashed dark energies that struck the monsters down. With a fiendish cackle, the pillager disappeared.

“Wh… What the…?!” Sakamoto could barely believe what happened in front of him. The girl in front of him was a very different person then he thought of. In a way, she terrified him even further.

After the battle was over, reality caught back up to Erika. She looked down and noticed that along with the mask that was back on her face, she noticed her new clothes. “What…? Since when did I…?”

“You bitch…!” Kamoshida found his courage to get up and went for Erika. Before he could get his hands on her, however, Sakamoto noticed this and charged for him. With a grunt, the so-called king fell down and dropped a ring of keys.

“You like that, you son of a bitch?!” The boy shouted, initially satisfied of the chance to stop him.

Erika then noticed the keys and she began to make a run for it. “Sakamoto! Get the keys!”

“H-huh?!” He scanned the floor and quickly spotted them. “Y-you mean this?!” He quickly grabbed them and ran out behind her. Before Kamoshida could get his bearings back, Sakamoto slammed the iron door shut and managed to lock it. “Okay, it’s locked!”

Erika nodded. “Alright. But uh...” She looked down at her new threads again. “How did these show up…?”

“Hell if I know,” The boy said as he struggled much more with the situation at hand. “I was gonna ask you the same thing…!”

“Damn you!” Kamoshida’s voice echoed in the prison as he got up and glared at the teenagers. This action made both of them jump.

“Wh-whoa!” Sakamoto nearly lost his voice as he and Erika began to back away from the locked cell. “This is effin’ nuts!”

Before Erika could do anything, her clothes reverted back to her school uniform. As much as she was curious about this, there were more pressing matters at hand. “Forget this bastard! Let’s just get outta here!”

“Y-yeah! You just go ahead and lead the way!” The boy shouted as he threw the keys into a nearby stream of water and put some distance between him and Kamoshida.

“You goddamn brats! I’ll have you executed!” The man shouted at the top of his lungs as he glared at them. His actions prompted Erika to briefly glare at him.

“Get bent!” The girl fired back as she raised a middle finger at him before running off. His anger continued to echo as he screeched for the guards.

As the teenagers scoured the area for an escape, the boy began to shout again. “Hey! I don’t even know your name!”

Erika looked at him weirdly. “Now’s not a good time!”

“I know!” He began to pout. “But I don’t wanna end up pissing you off again just ‘cause I called you a weak girl or somethin’! I’m Ryuji Sakamoto!”

The girl rolled her eyes. This was too awkward for any introductions, but in hindsight, he had a point. “… Alright… I’m Erika Shirokawa!”

“I’d say it’s good to meet you, Shirokawa, but I ain’t down for being stuck here!” Ryuji shouted as he tried to ram his way through some iron bars but failed. “But I gotta say, you’re a major badass for a girl!”

“I guess I’ll take that as a compliment,” Erika said as she continued to lead the way. “But now’s not the time for chatter!”

Ryuji agreed as he stuck behind the white-haired girl. So much had happened in a very short amount of time but there was no time to try to sort through it. Their survival was on the line and the two were determined to make it out of there alive.


	4. Chapitre Trois - Le Rebelle

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi again! :]  
> It's been a moment since this story was updated, huh? I could've pushed it a bit further,  
> but I decided that it was already too long. ;p  
> I hope you all enjoy this chapter!

**Monday, April 11th 2016**

 

Erika was trying to escape from the strange prison inside Kamoshida’s castle alongside a crass boy that went by the name of Ryuji Sakamoto. The white-haired girl wasn’t sure what transpired when they were in the cell, but she somehow ‘awakened’ to an awesome power that called herself Arsene. That power proved to be useful when they began their jailbreak. Unfortunately for the teenagers, the prison was massive and there were many dead ends as well. It also did not help that Ryuji was trying to talk her ear off at the same time.

“That execution shit,” Ryuji spoke up. “Is he serious about that?! I mean… He’s talkin’ about killing us students here!”

“I know,” Erika said flatly. “You told me that about five times already.”

“I’m being serious, though!” The boy shouted. “I ain’t down with playing this shit! We gotta get outta here!”

“No kidding,” The girl said as she scoffed. When she spotted a case of stairs, she wasted no time in running upwards. Ryuji struggled to keep up as he complained about it and hoped that the door on top would lead to an exit. However, to both of their disappointment, the door had lead to another portion of the prison.

“You gotta be jokin’...” The blonde boy muttered. “… The hell is this place?!”

Erika’s agitation was showing through her eyes as she scouted the area. “Wherever we are, it’s huge… But there’s gotta be a way out. Let’s keep looking.” She began to run again and Ryuji followed her, complaining about their situation along the way.

After passing by some prisoners and reaching yet another dead end, a high-pitched voice spoke out from one of the cells. “… Hey! You!”

“Huh?” Erika began to look around as well as Ryuji.

“Wh-who’s there?!” The boy looked around nervously.

“Hey! Blondie! White hair! Over here!

When both of the teenagers directed their attention over to the cell next to them, the sight was unbelievable. The person, or rather a humanoid creature, beckoning them appeared as a diminutive cat with huge expressive blue eyes and it wore a black outfit with a yellow bandanna wrapped around its neck.

“Wh-what the hell is this thing?!” Ryuji shouted, surprised to see something like this strange creature.

“You’re not soldiers of this castle, right?!” The cat-like thing asked. “Can you get me outta here? The key’s just right there!”

Erika looked over to where it was pointing at and noticed the key hanging nearby the lock. “This one?” She said as she picked it up.

“Yeah!” The cat said. “Now you just gotta unlock it an--”

“Hold on!” The boy interrupted the creature, unsure of its sincerity. “We’re trying to get out ourselves. I mean, you look like an enemy too! Just what’re you, a cat?!”

Suddenly, it began to glare at Ryuji in insult. “I’m NOT a cat! I dare you to say it again!”

Erika appeared confused. “But you do have the appearance of one...”

The creature began to fluster as it continued to speak. “That’s not the point! Anyway, why would I be your enemy if I’m locked up? Tell you what- you want to escape, right? If you get me outta here, I can find the exit and help you!”

“… You would?” Erika asked.

“C-c’mon, man!” Ryuji sputtered. “This is too suspicious!”

The girl then picked her head up at the sound of metallic footprints. “The guards…!”

“If you think you can get out of this prison yourselves, be my guest,” The creature said as it frowned. “I’m pretty sure you don’t want to be caught and executed, right? I mean, I’d hate to think of what would happen to a pretty lady...”

“… What?” Erika looked at it again with an odd look on her face.

“Maaaan...” The boy groaned in fear. “This is too weird! Uh, Shirokawa, whaddya think we should do…?!”

Erika thought for a moment, but time was not on their side. If they linger at this cell, it was very likely that they would be caught. The same was true if she continued to find the exit without aid. Finally, aside from all appearances, the cat-like creature did look like it had the knowledge of this place. She placed her gaze on it and had her answer, “Alright, we’ll let you out, but you will help us get out of here! Deal?” She knelt down and began to tinker with the lock.

The cat grinned. “It’s a deal, my lady!”

Ryuji groaned at this turn of events, but he accepted this decision. “Man, I don’t wanna die…!”

“Hang on...” After fiddling with the lock, it clicked. “There!” Erika grabbed the lock and tossed it away. The creature pushed the door open and ran forward in joy.

“Ahhhh! Sweet freedom!” The creature said happily. “Thank you so much, my lady!”

“Now where’s the exit, you monster cat?!” Ryuji shouted at it, which earned him a glare again.

“I said to not call me a cat! My name’s Morgana!” The creature puffed its chest.

“Yeah, whatever,” The boy brushed it off. “Just hurry up! You wanna be locked up again?!”

Morgana began to frown again. “A-alright! Sheesh...”

“… Just ignore him,” Erika spoke up as she began to follow the cat. “He’s an ass, but he’s just freaking out over this. Not that I can blame him…”

The cat began to chuckle. “That’s an awfully nice way to put it.”

Ryuji didn’t like the remark much. “Harsh…!”

They did not get very far when they came across two of the guards. Morgana stepped up in front of Erika as Ryuji scrambled backward in fear.

“Wh-what the hell are those things anyway…?!” The boy shouted as fear choked him again.

“Hmph,” Morgana was unfazed. “Amateur. That’s not how you act in front of a lady, either. You gotta be brave and fight back! Observe!” He then began to concentrate and a powerful energy swirled around him. “Come! Zorro!”

Upon his command, a powerful figure emerged behind Morgana. It appeared to be a masculine form all in black, with a massive chest, big arms, skinny legs, and a cape. It daintily held a rapier, which made a ‘Z’ swoosh in the air. Erika was impressed by this figure, but more importantly, she recognized that Morgana possessed the same power that she had awakened to recently!

“W-wait, you got one too…?!” Ryuji shouted.

Morgana did not hear him and had Zorro dive head-first into battle. Zorro summoned powerful winds and destroyed one of the guards when it transformed into another jack-o-lantern monster. The other one left standing was a pink demonic figure with demon wings and it fought back against Zorro.

Erika observed the battle and noticed that in order to summon back Arsene, she will need to step up and fight with all of her heart. She stepped forward, her new attire appearing again and a determined resolve bubbling up within her as she placed her hand on her mask. “Arsene!”

“Huh?” Morgana turned around and was surprised to see Erika’s appearance as well as Arsene appearing. The red-and-black creature rushed forward and summoned dark energies once again. The might prove to be too much for the pink demon as it was destroyed.

“W-whoa…!” Morgana was taken back by Erika’s appearance. “You have a Persona too?!”

“… That what Arsene is? And the other one… Zorro, was it?” Erika asked.

The cat nodded eagerly. “That’s right! You’re a quick learner!” Then his expression turned serious. “We’ll have to be careful, though. Those damn Shadows have taken up intercept positions, which means that they will hold nothing back and try to kill us.”

The girl’s face hardened, as what fear was left had turned into determination. Ryuji, however, was very shaken by all this unfolding.

“M-man…!! I-I don’t know how much more of this shit I can take…!”

Morgana sighed as his paw connected to the middle of his forehead. “I guess I better uphold my end of the bargain…”

Before they could take another step, Erika’s school uniform had re-materialized on her. “Whoa! This shit again?”

“Huh, it looks like you don’t have full control over your power yet,” Morgana observed. “It shouldn’t dissolve like that beca--”

“W-who cares?!” Ryuji interrupted the humanoid cat, still shaken. “This crap doesn’t make any sense!”

Erika gave the boy a deadpan look while Morgana glared at him. “Can’t you sit still and listen for once, Blondie?!”

“Hey! Stop calling me that! I have a name, y’know! That’s Ryuji Sakamoto!”

“Oh yeah,” The white-haired girl thought of something. “I’m Erika Shirokawa. Better to call me Erika then ‘white hair’ or something.”

Morgana affirmed but then the serious expression on his face returned. “We shouldn’t stand around much longer. You wanna get outta here in one piece, right? Let’s go!”

Once again, the trio continued their escape. Erika and Morgana had a few more engagements with more soldiers along the way, but this also served as a perfect opportunity for the girl to learn more about her power. The cat served well as her teacher as he praised her learning ability. Also during their escape, Ryuji noticed some of the prisoners languishing inside of their cells. However, his flustered state prevented him from trying to recall where he had seen them before. Morgana would try to explain, but he was frequently cut off by the boy.

When they finally reached to a castle hall, Morgana led them to a room with no windows. Ryuji became agitated even further.

“Dude!” The boy shouted. “You freakin’ tricked us! It’s a dead end!”

“Sakamoto, shut up,” Erika grumbled. “You’re being too loud.”

Morgana sighed again as he rolled his eyes. “Ugh, amateur. This is the basics of basics!”

The girl then looked around, when suddenly her eyes landed on a ventilation shaft on top of some bookcases. “How about that shaft?”

The cat was pleased to hear the answer. “That’s right! You’re actually a natural to this!”

“Eh...” Erika shrugged. “You’d be surprised at what I’ve done to get out of trouble before.”

“So,” Ryuji began as he looked up at the shaft. “It’ll lead all the way outside, right? So all we gotta do is get that mesh off? I’ll get it!” The boy began to climb up and then held a firm grip on the metallic mesh. “And one and a two and-” After a few tries, he pried it off successfully. However, the force from the last pull prompted him to fall off of the bookcase and he grumbled in pain.

“Ow… Son of a...” He then realized what he just did as he got up off the floor. “Oh crap! The enemy didn’t hear us, did they?!”

“Well, at least we’re getting the hell outta here,” Erika said as she walked over to the bookcase. “Hey, Sakamoto, give me a boost.”

“Huh? Oh! Oh yeah!” The boy ran over and opened his palms so Erika could step up on them. He grunted in surprise as she did so. “Damn, you’re heavy!”

Erika quickly snapped a glare at the boy as she climbed up. “Hey, you better watch your damn mouth!”

Morgana once again slapped his face with his palm in annoyance. “Seriously… Is that how you talk to a lady?”

Ryuji became flustered again. “Sh-shut up!” He scaled the bookcase again and he looked down at the cat. “Hey, aren’t you coming with us?”

Morgana shook his head. “There’s still some things I have to do. Besides, I’ve upheld my end of the deal. So you two get going!”

Erika nodded. “Alright… Don’t get caught again, okay?”

“Hehe,” The cat chuckled as he smiled. “You better be careful too. See ya!”

The teenagers had gone their separate ways from the mysterious Morgana as they escaped through the ventilation shaft. Once they were outside, they ran straight ahead and never looked back.

~*~

“You have returned to the real world. Welcome back.”

A navigator’s voice echoed on Erika’s phone as the two returned to the street that was supposed to lead to Shujin Academy. The two were confused as to how it all transpired, but they were cut short by a couple of police officers. Annoyed by all of this and the current situation, she chose to walk away and head to the school. She already knew that she was in deep shit when the cops inquired about her and Ryuji’s cutting classes.

When the boy decided to follow Erika to the school, they made it to the front gate safely. He became confused as he surveyed the front of the school. “We’re here, but… It’s the same route as always… Wh-what the hell is goin’ on?!”

“That’s exactly what I wanted to ask you.”

Both of the teenagers jumped when they heard an authoritative voice speaking from the top of the stairs, which belonged to one of Shujin’s guidance counselors. Erika hated it when her intuition was dead on.

“We received a call from the police a moment ago,” The counselor said, his arms crossed.

Ryuji grumbled as his eyes narrowed. “Dammit, they snitched on us…!”

“Huh, that’s rare,” The man said as he raised an eyebrow. “I rarely see you with someone else, let alone a female student. Where were you roaming around until this time? Out on a date or something?”

“Uh...” Ryuji frowned, unsure of how to answer him. “We went to a castle…?” This prompted Erika to shoot him an annoyed look.

_/Really? You dumbass…/_

The counselor sighed as his eyes began to narrow dangerously. “So you have no intention of giving an honest answer? Why am I not surprised?”

“What’s this about a ‘castle’?”

Another voice spoke up as the new figure joined the counselor on top of the staircase. Both teenagers immediately recognized him as they were taken back by his rather normal appearance.

“K-Kamoshida?!” Ryuji breathed out in shock.

The teacher only smiled slightly. “You seem so carefree, Sakamoto. It is quite different from when you use to attend morning practice for the track team.”

The boy’s visage suddenly changed to being irate as he glared at Kamoshida. “Shuddup! It’s your fault that-”

“How dare you speak that way to Mr. Kamoshida, Ryuji Sakamoto!” The counselor boomed as he leered at the blonde. “You know there’s not much leeway left for you!”

Ryuji refused to back down. “He’s the one that provoked me!”

“Do you really want to be expelled?! I will not tolerate this any further! Follow me!”

“Wha-?!” The boy’s blood was boiling at this point. “This is complete bullsh-”

“Hold on,” Kamoshida finally intervened before Erika could say anything to stop Ryuji from flying off the handle. He directed his attention to his co-worker. “I was being inconsiderate to the boy. I will take my share of the blame as well.”

The counselor began to back off as he considered the teacher’s words. “Well… Alright, if you say so, Mr. Kamoshida...” He then turned his attention back to Ryuji. “Still, it’s inexcusable that you’re extremely late. You’re coming with me!” The man then directed his attention towards Erika. “As for you, Erika Shirokawa… I will not tolerate you cutting class as well! You’re-”

“Actually,” Kamoshida spoke up. “I’ll deal with her. You just go deal with Sakamoto, alright?”

Ryuji began to glare at the teacher, but he had to concede at this point. “F-fine...” He walked up the stairs to follow in the counselor’s shadow, but not before giving Kamoshida a dirty look before disappearing.

Erika instinctively put her guard up, as her old habits were showing through again. She would not harbor any trust for this man. Kamoshida, however, blinked for a moment.

“… Oh, now I remember! You’re the transfer student that I saw earlier!” The man then nodded to himself. “Well, given the situation, I’ll overlook this today. However...” He began to leer at the girl. “I’m sure the principal told you about it, but you cause any trouble and you’ll be expelled on the spot. Do you understand?”

The girl frowned as she refused to say anything to him, much less make eye contact. That seemed to have ticked him off, but he chose to restrain himself through gritted teeth. “Anyway… You better hurry to the faculty office. Do not keep Ms. Kawakami waiting.” Before he turned to leave, he felt the need to say one more thing. “Good luck trying to enjoy your new school life, Shirokawa.”

Erika waited for a moment until the teacher turned around and she proceeded to glare at his back. _/Screw this douchebag! Ugh, how bad can this day get…?/_

~*~

When Erika entered the school, she caught the attention of the students right away. They kept their distance from her as they whispered about her. Already annoyed by today’s events, she chose to ignore them. Some exceptions applied when some students uttered complete lies about her, which her glare would send chills down various spines. She could already tell that fitting in was going to be impossible. Fortunately, she managed to find her destination quickly.

Erika anticipated it, but she could feel holes being drilled into her head when her homeroom teacher Kawakami began to glare at her inside of the faculty office.

“So you finally showed up, Shirokawa-chan...” The teacher sighed heavily as she pinched the bridge of her nose. “Half a day late and this is your first day… Unbelievable...”

The white-haired girl frowned as she endured Kawakami’s harsh words. She was accustomed to this kind of weary treatment over the years, but some things were becoming stale. “My train ran late.”

The teacher’s face soured as she continued to glare holes into her student. “It’s lunchtime right now. You’d be here sooner if you just walked from your place. I understand that the train schedules are a mess due to that accident, but there is no excuse for your tardiness.”

Erika couldn’t help but narrow her eyes right back at her. She felt that she didn’t need some teacher to tell her that or stressing the obvious facts right now. Instead of talking back, she bit her tongue in an attempt to keep quiet.

Kawakami noticed the look on her face, but she didn’t back down. “Will you get it together, Shirokawa-chan? You were already given fair warning. I’ve also heard that you were caught with Sakamoto-kun.” She then sighed in agitation. “Do yourself a favor and don’t get involved with him. Ugh, why am I saddled with a troublemaker…? I even told you not to change your uniform too much and look what you did.”

 _/Guess it sucks to be you/_ , Erika thought bitterly. She had no intention to follow the rules to the book, but at the same time, it was in her best interest to keep a low profile. The faster this year would go, the better.

“Anyway,” Kawakami resumed. “Break is almost over. Classes will be over after fifth period today due to the subway accident. I’ll have you introduced when class resumes. Also, when you introduce yourself, please be serious about it. I don’t even care if you lie about it, just do not say anything unnecessary, okay?” She then got up from her seat and escorted Erika out of the office and to her homeroom.

When they reached the classroom, various students were whispering at a high gear. Erika’s stone cold face did not give away something of a smile as Kawakami was preparing something on the podium.

“Holy crap, is that her? Dude, she ran way late...”

“She looks… scary...”

“I heard that she gives you a stink eye if you even breathe her way…!”

“Yeah? I heard that if you try to mess with her, you’ll get your arm broken…!”

“Alright, settle down, everyone,” Kawakami spoke up, silencing the chatter in the air. “Well, I’d like to introduce a new transfer student. Her name is Erika Shirokawa. She is attending class this afternoon on because she wasn’t feeling well this morning. Alright, go on and say something to the class.”

Erika held her silent for a few moments as she tried to think of something to say that didn’t involve threatening someone or telling everybody to leave her alone from the get-go. Instead, she cleared her throat, which made some of her classmates jump a bit. “….. Hi.”

Most of the students became even warier as they whispered again.

“Uh… that’s it?”

“Jeez, even the way she said that is scary…!”

“Um...” Kawakami wasn’t sure if she should smack her forehead in irritation or get Erika to say more. But, she decided on backing off for now. “How about you go ahead and take a seat, Shirokawa-chan? You… take that empty seat right over there by the window.” She pointed at an empty desk. “Would any of her neighbors please share your textbooks with her today?”

“Wha… I’ll probably never see my books again…!”

“I’m too scared to talk to her...”

“O-oh crap, she’s coming this way…!”

Erika wordlessly strolled over to the empty desk, but then she heard someone say something along the line of ‘liar’. She immediately honed in a glare to a familiar girl with the fluffy pigtails. It was that Takamaki girl from this morning.

 _/The hell you looking at, you stupid gaijin?/_ Erika wanted to say these words out loud, but she backed off for now as the Takamaki girl kept up her dirty look. She was not worth violating her probation. The white-haired girl simply took a seat behind the blonde girl and attempted to take deep breaths.

This was going to be a very long school year.

~*~

When school had ended for the day, Erika could’ve sworn she was at the castle once again. But this proved to be false as she was still at Shujin. Despite Kawakami’s warning about getting tangled with Ryuji, she took up the boy’s offer to meet him on the school rooftop. Given that they were the only witnesses to the castle, she felt that he had to say something to her. It also did not help that the student body was talking about her criminal record…

_/How the hell did someone get a hold of that…? Ugh!!/_

She wanted to punch a wall, but she kept her anger in check as she went to visit Ryuji. The sign on the rooftop door prohibited any students from entering, but the door was unlocked. She chose to ignore it and opened the door.

Both of the delinquents talked about what happened this morning. They wanted to believe that they were in a dream, but deep down, they knew that it was anything but. Ryuji thanked Erika for saving him earlier, which prompted a nonchalant answer from the girl. Even she wasn’t sure how the power that was born from her came to be, or just what Morgana was. The boy also talked about Kamoshida, though some of the conversation about him were just speculated rumors. The one thing that was true about that teacher, however, was that he was a medalist who helped the volleyball team reach to the national championships. It was because of his coaching skills that the majority of the school staff respected him.

The teenagers began to wonder if they would be able to return to the castle. They felt that there was a lot more to that place and of Kamoshida. Ryuji initially dismissed it as a dream, but Erika objected. Perhaps they were onto something and since she had the power to fight off the monsters that protected the area, they may be able to find something and maybe run into Morgana again. The blonde boy began to smirk before the two left the school for the day.

“We’re just a pair of troublemakers, aren’t we? Hell, I think we’ll get along just fine.”

Despite the initial encounter that involved threatening to break his nose, Erika began to feel a spark of friendship. If she wasn’t going to fit in with the other students, at least she won’t be completely alone.

~*~

**Tuesday, April 12th 2016**

 

The next day arrived and Erika survived the scolding she received from Sojiro the night before. She left the coffee shop on time and managed to reach Shujin safely. This raised many questions from the girl, however. Just how did she and Ryuji stumble upon that castle in the first place?

When school was done for the day, she met up with the boy at the gates. They discussed the castle once more and eventually, they agreed upon trying to find it again. Ryuji suggested retracing their steps, which she agreed on. As they done so, she came to a conclusion that the boy wasn’t actually as bad as she thought at first. However, when they reached the school gate again, her patience began to drain as Ryuji insisted on trying again.

Again, the result was the same when they retraced their steps a second time. Erika began to narrow her eyes in agitation. “This is getting stupid.”

“For real…?!” Ryuji shouted. “I know we went the exact path to the castle! Maybe it was smaller than we thought...”

The girl then realized something, as she pulled out her phone. “Hold on a second… When we were going there the first time, I had a map open on my phone and--”

Ryuji gasped. “H-hey, wait a minute… Your phone said stuff like ‘welcome back to the real world’ or some shit like that yesterday, right? Lemme see your phone!” Before she complied, he took the object off her hand right away and began to mess with it.

The girl glared at him. “Hey! You drop that, you’re dead! That’s an expensive phone!”

“I can tell, it’s a Kirijo Nebula,” The boy said as his face twisted with mild irritation. His expression became inquisitive when he spotted a particular app. “What’s with this icon with the weird eye?”

“Oh that,” The girl cooled off slightly. “For some weird reason, it keeps showing up every time I try to delete it.”

“What a weird app,” Ryuji commented as he touched the screen a few times. “Hey… That is a navigation app! See? It even has your search history!” The boy held the phone up as Erika looked at it. Sure enough, it had the functions of a search as it also listed different words. “Let’s try using it! What’s the worst that can happen?”

As the boy began touching the screen again, the navigation voice spoke up in a monotonous tone. “Kamoshida… Shujin Academy… Pervert… Castle… Beginning navigation.”

“Huh?” Erika began to look around.

“Wh-what’s wrong, Erika?” Ryuji asked as he then noticed something too. “Wh-what the hell?!”

Distortion waves began to permeate the area as the icon on Erika’s phone began to distort as well. The teenagers experienced slight vertigo as the surrounding scenery changed. When the distortions disappeared, they found themselves back in front of the castle from before...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Brownie points if you recognize the minuscule mention about Erika's phone. lol


	5. Chapitre Quatre - Une Ètoile Déchue

**Tuesday, April 12th 2016**

 

It felt like going through multiple hoops of varying sizes. There was a lot of vertigo involved as well. By the time the feeling subsided, Erika and Ryuji had found themselves in front of the castle once again.

“Holy shit…!” Ryuji gasped out loud when he looked around. “It is the same castle from yesterday! So we weren’t dreaming, everything was real!”

“Seems so,” Erika said, looking up at the brooding building. Then, she noticed something off about her attire. “… Whoa! Those weird clothes are back.” The strange outfit that had appeared on her before had materialized again without warning. If she did not notice it by now, she would not have realized it at all.

“Wh-why do they keep showing up?!” Ryuji’s confusion took over him once again.

“Why’re you asking me?” Erika scoffed and then shrugged. “We got bigger things to investigate anyway.”

“Y-yeah, I know, but...” The boy began to shout again. “All of this makes no effin’ sense…!”

“Hey!”

Both teenagers jumped when a familiar voice whispered them. Then, they turned their heads and saw a familiar feline figure.

“Stop making such a commotion!” Morgana leered mostly at Ryuji, but he appeared surprised to see both him and Erika again. “I was wondering why the Shadows were acting up again… Why did you two come back?”

“We have our reasons,” Erika said and crossed her arms. “The first thing I wanna ask is about this place. Is this Shujin Academy or not?”

Morgana was surprised by Erika’s blunt approach but he was initially torn on telling her the truth. “Well… Guess I’m in no position to tell you two to get outta here… But yes, you’re right.”

“Wh-?!” Ryuji was dumbfounded by this answer. “But this is a castle…! How the hell is it a school?!”

“If you would let me explain, I’ll tell you!” The cat creature groaned. “This castle IS the school, but only to the castle’s ruler. I think you two have called him Kamoshida? This is how his distorted heart views this place.”

The blonde boy’s face became agitated due to his failure to understand Morgana’s words. “… S-start explaining it the way it makes more sense! Distorted heart? The hell does that mean?!”

Morgana gave an exasperated sigh. “I shouldn’t expect a moron to understand...”

“The hell didja say?!”

Erika tilted her head back in growing irritation while Ryuji was trying to pick a fight with the cat creature. However, the blonde simmered down enough once all three individuals heard someone or something screaming in agony within the castle.

“What was that…?” The white-haired girl asked warily.

Ryuji remembered something important from yesterday when some pieces of the puzzle were falling into place. “Wait, is it the prisoners here…?!”

“Well, you made a good deduction, for once,” Morgana said in a slightly sarcastic tone. “But yeah, it’s like that here every day. That Kamoshida forces them to undergo extensive ‘exercises’, regardless of their condition. It lasts all day and into the night, too. It probably doesn’t help that he’s angry because you two escaped as well.”

Ryuji’s agitation grew tenfold and his expression darkened. “That bastard…!”

“… You okay, Ryuji?” Erika asked when she noticed this change in him.

“This is bullshit!” The blonde shouted in anger. He then rammed the front door. It did not give in and open, but he appeared to not care about that. “You hear me, Kamoshida?! You’re gonna pay, goddammit!”

“Hey, get your ass over here!” Erika ran over to the boy and pulled him back from the door. “Do you really wanna get swarmed by those guards?”

“Doing that isn’t going to make that door open, anyway,” Morgana shrugged.

Ryuji elected to ignore Erika for the moment when something else spurred on in his mind. He then looked at the cat. “Hey, Monamona!”

“It’s Morgana!” The creature in question leered at the blonde again.

“Whatever,” Ryuji pressed on with the subject. “Do you happen to know where the voices are coming from?”

Morgana frowned when he looked up at him and then at Erika. “You want me to take you to them…?”

“Well, that’s kinda why we’re here,” Erika said, placing a hand on her hip. “I’m the muscle of this plan, anyway.”

“Huh, if I didn’t know about your strengths, I’d think it would be the other way around,” Morgana said but then noticed the sour look from the girl. “N-not that I’m saying that you’re a delicate flower or anything…!”

“Eh, you get used to it,” Ryuji shrugged but then noticed that Erika was scowling at him. A visible bead of sweat began to develop while he was chuckling nervously. “Well… almost.”

“So, we doing this or what?” The girl looked at Morgana, not appearing to change her mind anytime soon.

“Well, given that you’re on board with this too, I think it’s settled. I can also teach you more about your power too since it looks like you’re getting used to it now.” Morgana gave a toothy grin. “Alright, follow me!”

~*~

During the return trip to the underground prison of the castle, the battles were unavoidable. Thus, Erika and Morgana engaged the enemies as they went along. Again, the cat-like creature proved to be a valuable ally by teaching the girl more of how to harness her powers as a Persona-user. She had even gained some weapons when it became apparent that knives were her preferred melee weapon of choice. In thanks to Ryuji and the laws of the distorted heart, she had also gained the use of handguns for combat.

Before the trio continued their investigation of the castle, Morgana had found a safe room to rest in. Erika agreed to take a break as she was trying to acclimate to the knowledge of this world. The rules of combat were different as well since she had not resorted to violence in a very long time. It was also due to the fact that she did not know that she held the power of Persona within until now.

“Y’know, it’s kinda scary how you’re good at this,” Ryuji said, draping his arms over a chair.

Erika sat down and gave him a weird look. “I actually never held a knife or a gun before… Baseball bats, bokkens, and an iron pipe, however...”

“What the- Were you in a gang or something?!”

“….. Yeah. Middle school.” Erika began to frown. She did not want to recall those days.

Ryuji, however, seemed amazed by this fact. “No wonder you’re scary as hell. Did you ever have to beat up someone?”

Erika’s frown intensified. “… I don’t want to talk about it. Besides, we still need to investigate the voices that we kept hearing.”

“W-well, yeah but...” The blonde delinquent sighed in defeat. He went along with the change of subject when he focused his attention on Morgana. “So… Is there a reason why a castle like this exists?”

“It’s because of the distortions,” the cat creature explained. “This is also why you’re seeing some part of the area changing.”

Erika looked up and around when she saw a visible shift in the room they were in. “… So that’s why we’re seeing a classroom in here...”

Morgana nodded. “This place is another reality projected by the ruler’s heart. It’s a world which distorted desires have materialized. The reason why this is happening, in this case, is because this Kamoshida thinks the school is his own castle.”

“This… is how Kamoshida sees things here?” Ryuji began to laugh but it was hollow. “… Goddammit…!” Anger began to build up to a crescendo when the boy slammed his fist onto the table. “That son of a bitch!”

Erika frowned again while Morgana watched him carefully. “You must really hate this Kamoshida guy, huh?” The cat asked with caution.

Ryuji’s glare deepened. “Hate doesn’t even cover how I feel!”

“I’m not even gonna ask why he pisses you off so much,” Erika said. “But if you get yourself neck-deep in shit, we won’t be able to save you.”

“Personally, I wouldn’t word it like that, but I agree,” Morgana conferred. “We need you to stay focused while we are inside of this Palace.”

Both teenagers then looked at the cat with odd looks. “Palace…?” Ryuji asked, snapping out of his bitter funk.

“Yep,” Morgana grinned. “That’s what I like to call places like this. The desires of the heart have become so strong, it distorts the owner’s own reality. It also attracts the Shadows and they follow the strong distorted will of the owner. Of course, they will attack anyone that possess a powerful will of rebellion. That’s why your appearance has changed, Erika.”

The white-haired girl looked down at her strange attire again. Shortly after, she adjusted her gloves out of habit. “… I want to say that I get it, but there’s way too much to think about… But the rebellious part, I’m kind of familiar with.”

Ryuji plowed his forehead into his chair in irritation. “Why the eff does any of this make no sense?! Forget about her clothes for a sec, what about you? What are you?” He directed his attention to Morgana.

“The spaz does have a point,” Erika crossed her arms, despite Ryuji’s grumbles. “A human being able to summon a Persona and changing clothes to rebel against a Palace’s owner is one thing, but you’re much different.”

Morgana stood his ground as he puffed up his chest. “I’m a human, too! An honest-to-god human!”

The blonde delinquent rolled his eyes. “No way in hell you’re a human, you’re more like a cat!”

“Well, that’s because…!” The cat-like being had to stop himself for a second. He then frowned and tried to find the words to say. “Well… I lost my true form. I think anyway...”

“….. You think?” Erika raised her eyebrow.

“But there is a way to regain my true form!” Morgana bounced back. “I was investigating this place for that reason. I ended up getting caught, though…” A determination in his eyes returned and he held his head high. “That Kamoshida tortured me as well! I can’t ignore that and I’m gonna make him pay!”

“Ugh, what is this, a comic book?” Ryuji began to rub one of his temples. “This is nuts, man...”

Erika uncrossed her arms and gave the boy a side-eye glance. “Well, we can’t exactly back down now. Not after what happened to us yesterday. We still need to find those prisoners and then get the hell out of here before that self-righteous prick notices that we’re here again.”

“Erika is right,” Morgana affirmed. “If we’re done resting here, we need to get going!”

~*~

It took the trio a bit of time and navigating the sounds of the agonizing screams, but they had finally reached their destination. Or what may have looked like one since they approached a door with a banner hanging over it.

“Kamoshida’s… Training Hall of Love…? What the hell- What kinda shit is this?!” Ryuji shouted again.

Erika’s skin started to crawl. “That… sounds so messed up...” As much as she wanted to turn away, she had no choice but to continue this trek. With caution in her movements, she opened the door and entered first. The voices grew louder while they ran down a long stairway.

“I can’t take this anymore…!”

“N-no more…! C’mon…!!”

“S-somebody help me…!!”

Ryuji’s eyes widened when he noticed a barred door. “A-are they comin’ from there…?!”

Erika glued her eyes to the door as well. Once she and Ryuji approached them, however, they were thrown into shock as they witnessed multiple guards brutally attacking helpless teenagers. “….. What the fuck...”

The blonde immediately recognized them as Shujin students and he was shaking with anger. “… Dammit! This is all bullshit!!”

“Hey! Will you keep your voice down?!” Morgana hissed. “How many times do I have to tell you that?”

Ryuji ignored the cat for a moment. It was apparent that he was not calming down. “This is beyond fucked up! How do I open this damn door?!”

“Stop… it...”

An unknown voice stopped the delinquent for a moment. Suddenly, a battered and bruised student in shorts weakly walked up to the door on the other side and looked at the trio pitifully. “… Leave us alone… It’s no use...”

Another student in long pants also approached them, equally brutalized as well. “We won’t be executed… If we just follow orders… And stay obedient...”

“The fu-” Ryuji placed his hands on the iron bars and gripped them in disbelief. “You sayin’ that you want to stay here?!”

“Hey, wait a second...” Morgana interjected. “Was it your plan to rescue these guys…?”

Ryuji turned around and glared at the cat creature. “We can’t just leave them here! You saw what’s going on!”

“Ugh, how stupid are you?”

“What?!” Ryuji almost lunged at Morgana, but Erika stepped in between the two.

The white-haired girl turned her head at Morgana. “Is there a reason why we can’t save them?”

“Yes, there is,” the cat frowned. “These people here are only humans in Kamoshida’s cognition. Unlike you two, they are not real. They are not humans that have accidentally wandered into this world, but they are different.”

“Cognition…?” Ryuji tried to wrap his brain around the world.

Erika’s brain was processing Morgana’s words and she crossed her arms again. “Meaning…?”

“Meaning that there’s no point in saving them!” Morgana concluded. “You could think of them as… I don’t know, extremely similar-looking dolls or something...”

The blonde’s brow furrowed in irritation. “Why the hell’s it gotta be so complicated?!”

“….. I think I get it,” Erika said and tried her best to piece the information together. “You said that this is Kamoshida’s distorted reality, right? Aside from the guards, then the students here as just a part of what he calls his reality… King of the castle and the students as his slaves...”

Ryuji was becoming angry all over again and scoffed. “When you put it that way, it’s on point… So this is what’s really going on in that bastard’s mind!”

“Still,” Morgana walked up to the barred doors with a heavy heart. “I do admit that this is unforgivable. He must treat them as slaves in the real world as well.”

“Huh?” The blonde picked his head up and then a thought struck him. “Hey, wait a minute…!” He took a good look at the students once again until a realization hits him. “I know them! They’re members of Kamoshida’s volleyball team!”

“In that case, they must have been abused physically every day… There’s no way they’d be so beaten up normally,” Morgana said.

Erika’s face hardened when she looked back at the volleyball players. “… This means that they’re going through the same crap as well?”

“Most likely,” The cat concluded. “This proves without a doubt that Kamoshida thinks of them as his slaves.”

“Holy shit...” Ryuji’s face also hardened when the realization sunk in. “This might be for real… I’ve heard rumors, but I’ve been hearin’ that Kamoshida’s been using physical punishment. If they’re true, wouldn’t this be something to report to the police…?”

“We’d need evidence that asshole is responsible for this,” Erika said. “How are we gonna collect some?”

“Easy!” Ryuji pulled out his phone. “I’ll record what’s going on here and-” Before he could finish his sentence, he noticed that something was amiss. “The hell, the camera’s not working?! We can use the navigation app, but the camera’s no go?!”

“Huh? Navigation app?” Morgana spoke up curiously.

“That’s what we’ve been using to get here,” Erika explained. “Let me try my phone.” Unfortunately for her, she had a similar problem with opening the camera app on her phone. “… Huh? Mine doesn’t work either.”

“Whatever you’re gonna do, hurry,” Morgana urged the teenagers. “We’re gonna get caught if we keep standing around.”

“If there’s nothing we can do, then we gotta get outta here,” Erika said. When she turned around, she noticed that Ryuji was staring at the students. “The hell you doing? C’mon!”

“Hold on a sec!” The delinquent did not move. “I’m gonna memorize their faces ‘cause we don’t have anything else. Let’s go around so I can see the rest of them!”

“Uh… ‘Kay, sure,” Erika began to lead him around. To their horror, there were some extreme forms of punishment bestowed upon the cognitive volleyball team. Some were forced to run on a moving track while others were shot at with volleyballs hurled at them. If this was any indication of the real world, then Kamoshida must be stopped.

After memorizing their faces, the team endeavored to move towards their escape. Morgana’s fears came true, however, as the guards began to converge to the Training Hall. With the cat’s help, Erika and Ryuji followed the lead and managed to find the similar route that they had taken before. Unfortunately, the Shadow version of Kamoshida was waiting for them at the entrance, along with some guards.

“Goddammit!” Erika cursed, reaching for her knife.

“It’s you again...” Kamoshida leered at the trio with disgust. “To think that knaves such as yourselves made the same mistake again. You’re hopeless!”

Ryuji gave a menacing glare at the so-called king. “News flash! This school ain’t your damn castle! I’ve memorized their faces real good! You’re going down!”

Kamoshida listened to the boy’s words, but then a sinister smirk formed on his face. “I guess it’s true when they say ‘all bark and no bite’. I can imagine how far the star of the track team has fallen.”

“Huh? The hell are you gettin’ at?!” Ryuji shouted.

“I bet your companion doesn’t know about you at all,” The so-called king sneered. “I’m talking about the one person who betrayed his team, by resorting to violence and ending his teammates’ dreams. Did you even imagine how much pain you’ve caused them with your selfishness, Sakamoto?”

“Ngh...” The blonde’s face wracked with guilt but he was unable to say anything.

Erika glared at Kamoshida. “What’s your point, asshole?!”

“Heh, I was right. You don’t know a thing about him,” Kamoshida chuckled menacingly. “He goes on all carefree, but yet he has destroyed the hopes of the track team. He’s even willing to go to some lengths to befriend a girl! Too bad for you, however… By befriending someone like Sakamoto, you are going to die. How unfortunate.”

Erika kept her guard up and she glared at the teacher. Before she could say anything, Ryuji spoke up after a prolonged silence. “You don’t know jack shit about me!”

“Hmph,” Kamoshida appeared dismissive when he turned around and looked at his guards. “Kill them. Don’t sully my castle with garbage any longer.”

Once Kamoshida walked away, a few guards stepped forward and transformed into large ram-like beasts with dark skin and red eyes. Erika and Morgana ran forward and readied their weapons.

“Ryuji! Get the hell outta here!” The girl shouted.

“Wha-?! But what about you two?!”

“Just get going!” Morgana bellowed. “We’re gonna cover-”

“Surround them!” One of the beasts shouted as two more circled the trio. “We’ll kill them ‘cause King Kamoshida told us!”

“Ngh!” The cat looked around with a worried look on his face. “We’re surrounded?!”

Erika gritted her teeth in agitation. There was no way Ryuji would be able to escape, much less herself and Morgana. With no other choice, she reached for her mask. “You ain’t killing nobody! Arsene!”

As commanded, the fiendish Persona appeared and tried to blast the beasts back with dark magic. However, the enemies were unscathed by Arsene’s wrath and they lunged towards her with such power, knocking her into a wall and causing her to disappear. Erika felt a small degree of pain transferring to her, but she had little time to react. One of the creatures tried to ram her down, but she dodged the blow and countered by jamming her knife into its neck, causing it to howl with pain.

Morgana did not fare any better against the beasts as Zorro struggled against them. His wind skills were rendered useless and the creatures battered the Persona with no mercy. When Zorro eventually disappeared, Morgana tried to pelt the enemies with his slingshot despite being in pain, but his shots were ineffective. He was defeated when one of the creatures ran him down.

“Morgana!” Erika cried out. This distraction would be a mistake for the girl when she was also attacked. She fell to the floor and grunted in pain. When she tried to get up, one of the guards that did not transform planted its foot on her back, causing her to shout out in pain. “Ugh! Get off of me!”

“Heh,” Kamoshida returned to see the spoils of the battle won. Erika and Morgana were soundly defeated while Ryuji was torn by what happened. The smug teacher mimicked the guard by pinning his foot on top of Morgana.

“Rgh…! You piece of-” The cat creature groaned in pain when Kamoshida put more pressure on his tiny body.

“… No… Oh shit… This… This isn’t...” Ryuji fell to his knees and watched his comrades helplessly, wearing an expression mixed with grief and despair.

“Ah, but it is, Sakamoto,” Kamoshida said, sneering at the blonde. “Take a good look. I bet you came here on a whim. Look at what you had gotten yourself into.”

Ryuji couldn’t find the strength to look at the teacher. He shook his head. “No… That’s not...”

Kamoshida sighed irritably. “Getting emotional already? I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again- you’re a worthless piece of trash. How dare you raise your hand against me! And after I bestowed my kindness in supervising track practice… Although, it was only temporarily.”

The delinquent gritted his teeth as his fists slammed the floor. “That wasn’t practice! That was all physical abuse! You just didn’t like us!”

“Hmph,” The teacher snorted. “You were all just an eyesore! I’m the only one who needs to achieve results and I always get my way! Even that coach was hopeless and he got fired! Had he not opposed me with a sound argument, I’d settle the matter with only breaking his track star’s leg.”

This revelation surprised Erika, but it honed in on Ryuji like a missile. His eyes widened with shock and he slowly raised his head up. “…. What…? Wha…?”

“Do you need me to deal with your other leg too, Sakamoto?” Kamoshida was taunting him now. “Even if you said something, the school will only call it self-defense.”

“….. You...” Erika narrowed her eyes dangerously. “You bastard…!” Any further words were cut short when the guard put more weight on its foot, silencing the girl.

“Know your place, knave!” Kamoshida scolded the girl, giving her an evil look.

“….. God… Goddammit…!” Ryuji cursed, his fists balling up. “… I’m gonna lose again, aren’t I…? Thanks to this prick, the track team’s gone… And I can’t run anymore…!”

“That’s why...” Morgana began to speak, but he was cut short when Kamoshida also pressed further weight to the cat’s back. “Ugh…! That hurt!”

“It seems that some tongues are still wagging at me,” the so-called king’s words were dripping with venom. “How disgusting. Know that you’re responsible for their demise, Sakamoto! After I kill them, you’re next.” He ended his monologue with an egotistical cackle.

“Ryuji!” Morgana shouted.

Erika darted her eyes at the blonde. “Ryuji! You better listen to me right now! Don’t let this asshole win! Stand up for yourself!”

A sudden epiphany struck Ryuji when he realized something. His breathing began to normalize when he finally found the strength to glare daggers at Kamoshida. “….. Yeah… I might have lost it all before… He took it all away from me… But...”

“Be silent, you peasant,” Kamoshida commanded. “Stay where you are and watch these two vermin die for nothing, all because of a worthless piece of trash like you!”

“… Shut up!!” Ryuji defied the teacher and continued to glare at him. “You’re the real scumbag, Kamoshida…! All you do is use people and take everything away from them…! Stop lookin’ down on me and wipe that goddamn smile off your stupid face!”

Suddenly, Ryuji’s eyes began to bulge and he held his head. His screams of agony echoed across the chamber and he began twisting in pain while tears fell. Erika immediately recognized what was going on, despite wincing at Ryuji convulsing in spasms. This was all similar to how she had awakened to Arsene. Ryuji was awakening to his Persona!

The guard that had Erika pinned down would’ve waited for Kamoshida to give the order, but the self-proclaimed king was watching the spectacle unfold. “What can one meager fool do? Behold your comrade’s execution!”

Erika heard the last of the guard’s sentence and she quickly looked up. She gasped out loud when she saw its sword risen in the air. “Oh shit…!”

“Nnngh…!!” Ryuji knew that the time was now. If he waited one second longer, that sword would come down on his new friend. He must prove his will of rebellion and rip his newfound mask off! “Hrrraaaaaaaargh!!” With a strong grip, he ripped the skull-shaped mask off his face, tearing skin and revealing his blood-soaked face. Powerful energies began to swirl around him, pushing back the guards and Kamoshida. The guard that was about to strike Erika lost his footing and fell backward, freeing the girl. Erika wasted no time when she grabbed the freed Morgana and ran towards Ryuji.

The blonde delinquent was panting hard, his head hanging down. He was wearing a new outfit that was mostly made up of blacks and grays with skeletal designs. His hands were covered in yellow gloves and he had a disheveled red tie. Floating behind him was an impressive and daunting figure. It had a pirate motif and it was even riding on a ship. Its appearance was skeletal and had a cannon on its right arm. Its cape billowed while the flames danced all around. When he finally raised his head up, Ryuji cracked a sadistic grin.

“This one too…?!” Kamoshida said, anger laced in his tone. He could hardly believe what was happening.

“Alright… Wassup, Persona!” Ryuji kept his grin but then he narrowed his eyes at Kamoshida. “Now that I got this power, it’s payback time!”

“King Kamoshida!” The guard stepped forward. “Allow me to dispatch these lowly scum!” It revealed its true form, which appeared to be an armored knight in red on a demonic horse. “I’ll teach you to bother King Kamoshida with trifle matters!"

“Come get some!” Ryuji shouted, pointing his finger at his first victim. “Blast ‘em away, Captain Kidd!”

On command, the pirate Persona unleashed powerful electric blasts in the vicinity of the demonic knight. Any lingering goat beasts were immediately destroyed into nothingness. Kamoshida remained on the flank of his guards, out of harm’s way.

“Let’s start pulling back!” Morgana shouted. “We’ll get outnumbered soon!”

“What?!” Ryuji frowned. “But we got this!” Suddenly, the knight slashed at Captain Kidd, causing the blonde the hold his chest. “Shit…!”

Erika rushed forward with her hand on her mask. “Piss off!” Arsene materialized and rushed forward with her claws out, damaging the knight greatly.

“Come forth!” Morgana followed up with summoning Zorro. The masculine Persona rushed forward and unleashed powerful wind gusts against the enemy, destroying the guard and the fodder that was left standing. “Now lets’ get outta here!”

“Yeah, c’mon Ryuji!” Erika shouted, grabbing the boy’s arm. “We’ll kick his ass another d- Huh?!”

Ryuji also noticed the unbelievable and was shocked. “What the- Takamaki?!”

To both of their surprise, a slender teenage girl with two fluffy blonde pigtails was seen standing next to Kamoshida. She looked a lot like the girl that Erika had a glare-off with before. The Takamaki girl appeared to be blissfully content as Kamoshida held her close, placing his hand provocatively on her hip.

“Hey! Why the hell- Let her go, you perv!” Ryuji shouted, but he was physically spent.

Erika kept her grip tight on his arm while she picked up a speechless Morgana. “Forget about them for now! Let’s go!”

“Oh wow...” Morgana said dreamily. “… What a gorgeous girl…!” His trance was broken upon the arrival of reinforcements and his eyes widened. “Mrowr! We gotta scram before we get surrounded again!”

Ryuji ended up conceding to Erika and Morgana when the trio finally began their escape. Kamoshida ordered his guards to hunt them down, but they had eventually lost their trail. Right outside of the castle walls, the thieves were hiding out and waited for the guards to thin out before they could return to the real world.

“Phew,” Erika breathed out slowly before speaking up. She looked at her friend while kneeling. “… You alright, Ryuji?”

“Y-yeah...” The blonde finished panting long enough to stand up. He helped Erika up as well when he realized something different about him. “… Whoa, I don’t remember changin’ into these clothes!”

Erika took a good look at his new outfit and then nodded. “It suits a troublemaker like you.”

“You think so?” Ryuji ended up grinning. “Heh, thanks. Not many girls compliment me these days!”

A stray guard’s voice picked up, causing the teenagers to be quiet. “Did you find them?!”

“Shhh!” Morgana hissed. “Keep your voices down!”

“No, sir! Search the other way!”

Ryuji waited long enough before speaking again. “Man, I’m so confused… Why did they attack us? What’s with this skull?”

“Like I said before,” Morgana explained. “You hold the spirit of rebellion and it manifests into the power of Persona here. You effectively become a threat to the Palace’s ruler. ….. You don’t get it, do you?”

“… Nope.” The blonde admitted, slumping in self-defeat.

“Maybe it’ll make more sense when we use this power more often,” Erika said. “We got unfinished business here anyway.”

Ryuji then gasped in panic. “Wait a sec! We’re in deep shit!”

Morgana glared at the boy again. “I told you to be quiet!”

“This is serious!” The delinquent pressed on. “We might’ve gotten away here, but we’re still screwed with the Kamoshida at the real school...”

Erika blinked once before the realization sunk in. “… Shit… You’re right...”

“Oh, relax you two,” Morgana said nonplussed. “The Kamoshida from reality can’t possibly know about what’s happening here. Did he ever mention about the execution at all?”

Both teenagers stopped and pondered this for a moment. Now that Erika thought about it, the real Kamoshida never made any mention of that event.

Morgana gave them a moment before speaking again. “There you go. A Shadow is a suppressed version of the true self- the dark side that they want to conceal at any costs. That said, you two should be fine. Now that’s out of the way, there’s something important that we need to discuss.”

Erika raised an eyebrow at the cat. “And that is?”

“I guided you here as promised. Now you must do something for me.”

Ryuji frowned with such intensity. “Whaddya mean?”

“I was being super nice about teaching you about how to use the power of Persona and how to navigate this Palace. I was originally here to investigate something in order to erase the distortions from my body and regain my true form. That’s why we need to delve into a place called Mementos and--”

Morgana’s speech was cut off when more voices picked up. This sent chills down both Erika’s and Ryuji’s spines when they looked up and around.

“Shit! We gotta go,” Erika said and she began to run off. “Don’t get caught or something!”

“You’re pretty gutsy for a cat!” Ryuji shouted as he tailed the girl. “See ya!”

“What the-?!” Morgana was shocked the see the two leave before he could finish his proposition. “What the hell?! Get back here! You’re not leaving me here! Oh hell no!”

Unknown to the teenagers, the cat-like creature began to tail after them…

~*~

“You have returned to the real world. Welcome back.”

Erika and Ryuji had returned to the area of Shujin Academy, this time in the alley that was the opposite of the school. Both of them gave each other several minutes to catch their breath before speaking up.

"..... Well, that was eventful," Erika finally spoke, taking a deep breath and feeling exhausted.

"Yeah... Thank god..." Ryuji huffed a few more times until he was able to stand up straight. "... Man, I've dragged you around a lot, huh. Sorry 'bout that."

Erika only shrugged in response. "I'm just as involved in this now. Laying low won't do me any good and walking away from this would be a huge dick move."

"Heh, you're right," the blonde snorted. "But damn, I feel good. Tired as hell, but I'm gonna sleep really good tonight. If what we saw is for real, this is gonna be good!"

"It'd be incredibly damning evidence," Erika said, leaning on the brick wall. "But how're we gonna get those volleyball players to confess?"

"C'mon, don't think too hard," Ryuji frowned. "All we gotta do is just make 'em fess up! Once they actually say something about it, Kamoshida'll be done for good!"

"Hm," the girl shrugged again. "It's worth a shot."

"That reminds me, should we go ask Takamaki about what she's doing with Kamoshida?" Ryuji asked. "I-I mean... That pervo totally felt her up and shit right before we left."

"Yeah... That was disgusting," Erika's face scrunched up. "But... I don't think that was the real Takamaki."

Ryuji's eyebrows shot up in surprise. "Huh?! Why?"

Erika thought back to her first day of school, particularly when the Takamaki girl was offered a ride by Kamoshida. Upon closer inspection, it appeared that if she did have a choice, she wouldn't take the offer. "..... Remember when Morgana said those volleyball players were just cognitions of Kamoshida? I highly doubt that gaijin would've been willing to work with that creep, real or not."

The delinquent was initially silent, but he had to hold back a chuckle. "... Uh, actually Takamaki's not a gaijin, Erika."

"..... She isn't?"

"Hey, we may have dyed our hair, but her hair color is for real. Don't feel bad, I made that mistake way back, too." He eventually sighed. "But screw that! We'll just have to ask for her side of the story when we get a chance! But uh... Now that I think about it, practically everyone's got you pegged for a criminal now."

Erika blinked once, before recalling how vicious the student body was when it came to talking about her. If she was more modest or meek, she would have probably let them get to her. Instead, they were talking about a former delinquent and they had only shown fear when Erika responded to them by glaring. "..... Oh yeah. Some shitheads were talking about that recently. How the hell did that get out so fast?"

Ryuji frowned with great intensity. "It was Kamoshida who opened his damn mouth! No other teacher would drop a rumor like that."

"Ugh... Somehow, I'm not surprised," Erika narrowed her eyes in anger. "I'm starting to see a trend here..."

"Yeah, it's always been like this," Ryuji grumbled. "It doesn't matter if it's a student or even a club- that asswipe will do everything in his power to ruin anything and everything just because it doesn't agree with him."

"I can see that..." the white-haired girl scoffed. "Well, let's save our energy for taking him out tomorrow. I'm about ready to hit the sack."

The blonde was about to agree until his stomach verbally rumbled. "Oh... Crap, I haven't eaten since lunch. Since it's pretty crazy around this time, how 'bout we go grab a bite? It's on me!"

Her ears perked up at the idea of a free meal. It was also true that excursion in the Palace world also left her hungry as well, and who was she to pass up a free meal? "... Sure, I'll go."

"Alright!" Ryuji was grinning while he and Erika began to head to a restaurant he had in mind. "I gotta hear your story!"

Erika grumbled when a frown formed on her face again. "... Do I really have to?"

Ryuji then produced puppy dog eyes at her. "C'mon, man! You got to hear about my beef with Kamoshida!"

"... Oh yeah," the white-haired girl remembered, eventually conceding to the boy. "... Fine, but don't expect much."

During their meal, the two became more acquainted with each other. Ryuji learned of Erika's situation and how she ended up in Shibuya. Unfortunately for him, he couldn't get her to talk about how she was a former gang member, but he did learn that she was trying to reform for the better. The girl managed to change the subject of Kamoshida and how to deal with him. There was a volleyball rally tomorrow at the school, so it provided a perfect opportunity for the two to talk to the team players and somehow get them to confess their coach's physical punishment. They were unsure of how to retrieve this information since both of them were viewed as delinquents, but they could not give up now. They have a job to do.

To Erika, someone like Kamoshida must be punished.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> "I am Thou... Thou art I...  
> Thou hast acquired a new Power...
> 
> With the birth of the Chariot Persona,  
> I have obtained the blessing of the winds  
> that will lead to thine freedom and hidden power..."


	6. Chapitre Cinq: L'ego D'un Homme

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Assuming that you've already played/read the story of Persona 5, obligatory warning for Shiho.  
> Also obligatory warning for a few chapters for Kamoshida. Yep.

**Tuesday, April 12th 2016**

 

Right before Erika began to get ready to turn in for the night, she received a message on her phone. It had been quite a long time since she had received such things, but it was rare for her to initiate or continue the conversation this way. She wasn't surprised when she saw Ryuji's handle on top of the new messages.

 **» SAKAMOTO:** That thingy on your phone was a weird red eyeball icon, right?

 **» SHIROKAWA:** Yeah. What about it?

 **» SAKAMOTO:** Well, we ended up at that weird castle when we used the nav app, right? It's on my phone now too... Dude, I don't even remember installing it!

Erika paused before typing a reply back. _/So the same thing happened to him too.../_

 **» SHIROKAWA:** Huh. That's kinda what happened to me. It just showed up out of nowhere.

 **» SAKAMOTO:** That's creepy as eff. It is really okay to use something that we haven't even downloaded ourselves? We don't even know if that app is dangerous...

 **» SHIROKAWA:** On the other hand, that thing's the only way for us to get to that place. If we just use it for that purpose, our phones should be okay.

She noticed that there was hesitation on Ryuji's part, with the tiny message of 'typing...' appearing on and off.

 **» SAKAMOTO:** Well... Alright... But first, we gotta get those confessions before we can head back. Don't go ditching school on me tomorrow!

 **» SHIROKAWA:** Hey, I'm the one with the record, remember? I can't afford to go ditching.

 **» SAKAMOTO:** Dude, I said I was sorry for bringing that up earlier! I also can't afford to take you out for food every day!

In what may have felt like a long time, Erika genuinely smiled a little. It had been a long time since she was able to talk to someone like this. In a way, she felt that she was not alone anymore.

~*~

Deep in slumber, Erika felt something familiar. When she opened her eyes, she noticed the ultramarine aura at first. She was back in the Velvet Room, in that same prison cell and prisoner's clothes.

"..... Oh hell, I'm back here...?"

She slowly got up and looked over her shoulder to see the figures of Caroline and Justine watching her. Igor observed her from his usual place behind the desk, with his grin still present.

"Welcome back to my Velvet Room," Igor greeted the girl. "It appears that you had awakened to an incredible power recently. You have officially begun the road to rehabilitation."

Erika remained silent. She was half-expecting the strange man to congratulate her, but he did not say anything of the sort.

"Now... This prison of your own heart... Have you become accustomed to it?"

The girl refused to say anything and she averted her eyes away from Igor. She gripped the iron bars and a frown intensified on her face.

Caroline became inpatient and shouted at Erika. "Hey! Speak up when Master is talking to you, Inmate!"

"There is no need, Caroline," Igor spoke up, appearing amused. "She has already provided my answer... She is understanding this place at her own pace but moving forward with nerves of steel. Now then," He decided to change the subject to something more important. "You may be holding the power of Persona, but your powers are currently weak. It would not be enough to fight back against the ruin that threatens you."

"Please be aware that you cannot do this alone," Justine spoke softly. "In order for your power to grow, you must forge bonds with other people."

Erika blinked once and then looked over at Justine. "... Meaning?"

"For example," Igor picked the conversation back up. "You entered a partnership with someone who had also awakened to the power of Persona. That bond will help strengthen your own heart, as much more will be the foundation for your recovery. That said, I am not advising that you form bonds that are frivolous and superficial. Instead, they must be willing to lend you their strength, however by morals or faith."

"That means that there are a lot more people in your world that are more talented than you!" Caroline boomed. "The more bonds you forge, the more you mature, the more powerful your skills will be!"

"We have high expectations of you," Igor's grin grew slightly bigger. "We will enter a partnership of our own as well. Now... Return to your world and continue the path of your rehabilitation."

Before Erika could say anything else, the twin-bun girl narrowed her eyes at the white-haired girl. "Now scram!"

~*~

**Wednesday, April 13th 2016**

 

The next day had arrived without incident, but Erika was ready. Today was the day of the volleyball rally, which was entirely Kamoshida's idea. Being forced to watch a bunch of people play was far from the girl's interests as she could care less about sports. However, she was waiting for the moment when she and Ryuji can begin their mission.

During the game, the two delinquents watched the teachers play against the students. Both had changed into their P.E. outfits, with Ryuji's jacket absent and sleeves rolled up. Erika had her jacket draping over her shoulders like a cape and used her headband to tie her hair up into a ponytail. Both of them wore bored expressions while watching the game.

"This is boring as shit," Ryuji commented.

"No kidding," Erika yawned visibly before placing her arms on her knees. She noticed the Takamaki girl on the other side of the gym, who appeared to be bored as well. This may either be a ruse or maybe she really was not on Kamoshida's side. This was a stark contrast to her cognitive self from the Palace. While she was curious if the rumors about her and Kamoshida were true or not, the priority was to pry information out of her eventually.

Erika had snapped out of her thoughts when she heard a powerful slam of the volleyball. Kamoshida spiked the shot and it slammed right into a distracted student with unkempt blue-black hair. Everyone who had witnessed the shot winced and they began to whisper in sympathy for the boy. Erika recognized him as one of her classmates, Yuuki Mishima. He was a particularly quiet boy and he usually avoided other students, especially her. Despite the mutual feelings, even she felt a sliver of sympathy for him. He did not deserve this.

After a moment's silence, Kamoshida ran over to the unconscious Mishima. "Are you alright? Someone take him to the nurse's office!"

Ryuji scoffed under his breath. "This is all an act. We'll get him soon enough." Upon finishing that statement, the boy threw the stray volleyball back into court.

Erika nodded wordlessly and narrowed her eyes. Her will began to fill with determination and she formulated the details of the plan in her brain. When they had the chance, both her and Ryuji slipped out of the gym and began to find some of the volleyball players that were present. Unfortunately, their plan was unraveling fast as the players they had interrogated refused to confess the truth of their injuries. The only nugget of information Erika managed to get had involved Mishima himself. If only she could talk to him...

When the final bell rang for the day, Erika and Ryuji decided to meet up in the courtyard to discuss their next move. However, while the white-haired girl was waiting for the boy, Takamaki walked up to her.

Erika immediately glared at the blonde girl. "... What do you want, Takamaki?"

The blonde girl leered at her. "Yeah, hello to you too, Shirokawa. Can I talk to you for a second?"

"No. I'm busy." Erika quickly said.

Takamaki's frown intensified. "It'll be quick. I just wanna know what your deal is, with that lie of you being late and all that. There are also rumors going on about you."

"That's none of your business," The white-haired girl returned the frown. "I have nothing to say to you."

Before the blonde girl could question her further, Ryuji arrived in time. "Whaddya want with her, Takamaki?"

"Right back at you, Sakamoto. You're not even in our class." Takamaki responded bitterly.

"Does that matter?" Erika said, the glare in her eyes not letting up. "I can choose my own friends."

The pigtailed girl sighed in irritation. "Anyway... What're you two planning on doing to Mr. Kamoshida?"

Both of the delinquents reacted slightly when this question was posed to them. Erika recovered first, some of the questions appearing to have been answered just now.

Ryuji also figured it out right away. "... Ohhh, now I see. I getcha. You're all buddy-buddy with Kamoshida after all."

"I'd figure as much," Erika spoke up, crossing her arms. "You're practically his lapdog, aren't you? You'd probably get pissy when he does something behind your back too, huh?"

Takamaki was taken back by these sudden questions. "Wait... Behind my back...? What's that suppose to mean?"

Unfortunately, neither Erika or Ryuji could produce an answer. It was very likely that she did not know about the existence of the Palace or the fact that a cognitive version of herself exists. Noticing that neither of them was saying anything, Takamaki picked the conversation back up. "Anyway, you two better watch it. There's a bunch of rumors about you two and they're not pretty. Whatever you're gonna do, no one's gonna help you. I'm just trying to warn you guys, that's all." Upon finishing, she walked away.

"Tch, why is she always like that?" Ryuji grumbled. "She hasn't changed since middle school..."

Erika sighed inwardly as she uncrossed her arms. "I'm assuming that you got jack shit."

"... Yep," The blonde admitted begrudgingly. "What about you?"

"I only got a small lead," The girl said. "One of the guys from my class, Mishima. Apparently, he is getting 'special coaching' from Kamoshida himself."

Ryuji's eyes widened. "Damn...! That's better than nothing. He should have recovered by now. Let's catch him before he leaves."

Erika agreed and the two began their brisk pace towards the school lobby. Fortunately, Mishima was seen heading out. He appeared to have recovered from the vicious injury, but he walked with a slight limp.

"Hey! Mishima!" Ryuji called him out.

"Huh...?" Mishima turned around and was surprised to see the two. "Sakamoto...?! And Shirokawa too?!"

Erika did not budge. "Before you go, we need to talk to you."

"I... I don't have anything to say..." Mishima weakly said.

"Yeah?" Ryuji developed a stern look on his face. "We've heard that you were being 'coached' by Kamoshida. You sure it's not physical abuse?"

As they had expected, the lanky boy frowned. "... N-no! Certainly not!"

"C'mon, man, what's with the polite crap?" The blonde replied. "We saw him spike you in the damn face earlier today."

"... That was... That was because I'm not a good sport..." Mishima said.

"There's gotta be more than that," Erika pressed on. "You're always covered in bruises... That's not normal."

Before Mishima could defend himself, all three of the students noticed the imposing strut of Kamoshida encroaching upon them. Erika's face stiffened when she took slight refuge behind Ryuji.

"What's going on here? Hey, Mishima, isn't today practice?" The teacher turned to the battered boy.

"... I-I'm not feeling well today, Mr. Kamoshida..."

"Is that so?" Kamoshida's face darkened. "Maybe you're better off quitting. You'll never improve that crappy form unless you attend practice. You should know that, Mishima."

"He said that he ain't feeling well," Ryuji interjected. "Are you deaf or something?"

Kamoshida glared holes into the male delinquent but returned his attention to Mishima. "... Well?"

With his spirit crushed, the lanky boy sighed in despair. "..... I'll go."

Before Ryuji or Erika could speak up, Kamoshida decided to get into the boy's face. He also had cast glares on the girl as well. "You better watch yourself, Sakamoto. Any trouble from you and you'll be gone from this school. Same goes for you too, Shirokawa. You can't hide behind him forever, you know."

Erika forced herself to bite her tongue when the anger on her face was visible. The old habit of lunging out at people like him was threatening to bubble up. The only thing she could do was to not say anything and placed her hand on Ryuji's shoulder. It wasn't that she needed him to protect her, it was mostly to keep themselves in check before they did anything reckless. This was certainly not worth violating her probation.

The imposing teacher decided to back off when he noticed that they were not budging. "This is getting nowhere... Let's go, Mishima. This school is only for those who have the talents and aspirations. Worthless garbage like you two does not belong here." Saying his final piece, he walked off.

Erika released her hold as soon as Kamoshida was gone from her view. "..... Goddamn piece of shit asshole...!"

"That's my damn line," Ryuji grumbled. "He's gonna pay for this...!"

Mishima sighed and finally spoke up. "... There's no point, you two."

The white-haired girl turned to look at him. "What?"

"..... If you two are gonna try to prove that he abuses us... It won't work..." The lanky boy became depressed. "Everyone knows... The principal and even our parents... They all know, but yet, they've turned a blind eye to this..."

"For real...?!" Ryuji became shell-shocked to hear this from Mishima.

Erika's blood ran cold upon realization as well. _/... This keeps getting more screwed up.../_

"..... Please, don't get involved in this," Mishima's eyes slightly narrowed. "You two... don't know anything about what I'm going through... Especially you, Sakamoto. You of all people should know that there's nothing you can do...!"

Ryuji, unfortunately, had nothing to say, but this affirmed Mishima's words. He was in a similar position before and when he tried to rebel, he paid the price of getting his leg broken and causing the track team to disband. With nothing else to say, Mishima quickly left the lobby.

"..... You better not think about quitting," Erika glanced at the silent delinquent after a painfully quiet moment.

"... You're not giving up either, huh," Ryuji said with a slight dejected tone.

"Like I said, we can't run from this. Especially not with what we know."

Ryuji nodded in affirmation. "Yeah... We'll come up with another plan. I can try to talk to the guys one more time, but..."

"That might be the only thing we can do," Erika stretched out her arms. "But right now, I wanna get out of this crappy PE outfit and head home."

~*~

**Thursday, April 14th 2016**

 

The next day arrived and it was after school. During the day, Erika received a message from Ryuji during class, confirming what Mishima had already told them. The fact that everyone surrounding Kamoshida was willing to stay quiet about his atrocities was incomprehensible to both teenagers. He must be stopped, but what could they do...?

Erika sat down on the bench in the courtyard and Ryuji was standing next to a vending machine. His leg began to fidget in irritation. "Dammit...! There's gotta be another plan!"

"Calm the hell down, Ryuji," Erika grumbled. "We're doing all we can for now."

"Are we?" The blonde snapped. "There's no way in hell I'm giving up. You got any ideas? Even if you think they're stupid as eff, I wanna hear them."

"Hmm," Erika had to mull over what to think. Even if it was reckless... "... Maybe we should confront him?"

Ryuji did a double take. "N-no way... Even if we're able to get away with it, there are too many people protecting him. We'll be effed for sure." After a moment of silence, he had produced an idea. "Wh-what if we tell the police...?"

"With what? We don't have a damn thing on him and they won't believe us about the castle." The white-haired girl gave the boy an incredulous look in her eyes.

"Ugh... Dammit..." Ryuji was reaching his wit's end. "There's gotta be something..."

Erika tilted her head back and took a deep breath. There had to be a way to take out Kamoshida. But how? How would they knock down the so-called king of the castle?

 _/..... King of the castle.../_ The girl had those words repeating in her mind. Maybe they're unable to do anything in this world, but the other one... The strange world where they possess the power of Persona...

"... Punish the king."

"Huh?" Ryuji looked at her again.

"..... The other Kamoshida. What if we fight him...?" Erika looked up at the boy.

"Whoa... I didn't even think about that..." Ryuji admitted. "Is there a way to-"

"Finally! There you two are!"

An unknown voice spoke out of nowhere, startling the teenagers. A black cat with rather large blue eyes jumped on the table and it wore an annoyed look on its face. "How dare you leave me behind! Don't think you two are getting away with that!"

 _/..... Huh?/_ Erika simply stared at the cat. _/... It's... talking.../_

"What the hell...?!" Ryuji's jaw dropped. "A talking cat?!"

"I told you before! I'm not a cat!" The creature shouted.

The girl recognized the voice coming from the cat, but then again, there was only one cat that was capable of speech. "... Morgana...?"

"Took you long enough to remember me," Morgana sat on the table, still annoyed. "How can you two just up and leave me the other day?!"

"We kinda had no choice," Erika said, her arms crossed. "The guards were gonna catch up to us."

"And you would leave me behind?!"

"Hey, you're a cat!" Ryuji said. "You'd be able to avoid them!"

"After all the kindness I've shown you two?! And again, I'm not a cat! This is just what I look like in this world!"

Erika was beginning to grow annoyed by the talking creature. "If you really wanted to avoid escape, why didn't you follow us if you're able to change into a real cat?"

"Actually, I did," Morgana said matter-of-factually. "I ended up losing you two and it was more trouble then it was worth."

"Yeah, you're welcome," The girl replied sarcastically.

"Are you not freaked out by this, Erika?" Ryuji was still shocked by the unfolding events. "Does that mean... Morgana has a phone?!"

"Tch," The cat was not pleased by Ryuji's lack of intelligence. "You don't need one to get on my level. Anyway, I've overheard that you two are having trouble with Kamoshida?"

"S-shuddup!" The boy stomped his foot down. "We're still forming plans!"

"Is that so?" Morgana said, taunting him. "Well, what if I told you that there is a way to get to him? Erika here did have an idea..."

"... You're talking about the one from the castle, right?" Erika uncrossed her arms and leaned forward in her seat. She decided to fix her attention on the cat's proposal.

Before anyone could speak up, they overheard a couple of loud teachers walking nearby. They were loudly complaining about trying to find a cat on campus. Both Erika and Ryuji slowly looked over at Morgana, who was completely unfazed by the surrounding environment.

"... Whenever he talks, is everyone else just hearing him meow and stuff?" Ryuji spoke up.

"Seems like it," Morgana confirmed.

Erika looked over her shoulder to see the teachers gone. "Let's continue the conversation elsewhere. It'd be a problem if they find you here."

"I know a place!" Ryuji shouted and then picked up Morgana by the scruff of his neck. "Put him in your bag, Erika!"

"Hey! Don't treat me like a-" Before he could finish, Erika opened up her bag and Ryuji placed the cat inside. "Not so rough, idiot!"

"Keep quiet," Erika ordered. She then hefted the bag up and placed it on her shoulder. Morgana definitely contributed to the weight, but it wasn't enough for her to complain. "Alright, Ryuji. Lead the way."

~*~

The teenagers raced to the school rooftop as fast as they could, with Morgana rustling about in Erika's bag. By the time they reached up there, the girl placed her bag down and the cat creature jumped out of it.

"Do you have to be so rough?!" Morgana complained loudly.

"I wasn't trying to suffocate you," Erika said defensively. "Besides, I don't think you'd wanna be in a guy's bag like Ryuji's."

"Are you tryna say something?!" Ryuji lowered his brow, not amused by his friend's sharp tongue. When he and Erika sat down on the ground, Morgana jumped on one of the desks. "Back on topic... You said something about being able to get back at Kamoshida, right?"

"You said I was on track," Erika said. "It does involve the castle... Right?"

"You are correct so far," Morgana grinned. "You will need to take down his castle. While the Kamoshida from reality doesn't know it, his views of the school are what caused that castle to appear in the first place. So, if you were to make the castle disappear, it would affect him in reality."

Ryuji scratched his head, slowly understanding the context. "So... That castle is connected to him, but what'd happen if we attack it...?"

"..... If you said that it'd affect him in real life..." Erika picked up the pieces slightly faster than her friend, but she was trying to understand this as well. "... Then his views and desires would change...?"

Morgana mewed happily. "Precisely correct. If you were to destroy his palace, he would have a change of heart. The crimes would still be there, but essentially, Kamoshida would become a changed man due to carrying the guilt of his crimes. It'll become so unbearable for him, he'll end up confessing!"

Both Erika and Ryuji did a double take before looking at each other in shock. This was a welcoming idea in order to punish Kamoshida. "I-Is that possible...?!" The delinquent boy shouted.

"Yep," the cat continued the proposal. "He'll also forget what we've done in his Palace since it would be gone. Not only would we be able to stop him, any trace of our involvement would be erased as well."

"..... I'm starting to like the sound of this plan," Erika nodded. This was one of the better ideas that she had heard of.

"Man, you're so freaking awesome for a cat!" Ryuji chirped.

"Yes, that is true... Except for the cat part!" Morgana said.

"So... Is there a way for us to destroy the Palace"? Erika asked, still intent on listening to the plan. "Do we need to use a bomb or something...?"

Morgana gave the girl an incredulous look. "What? No! We're thieves, not thugs!"

"Sorry. Figured that there'd be a deeper meaning than just knocking a building down," the girl shrugged. "So, how do we take down the Palace?"

"We'll do so by stealing the treasure."

"Uh... Treasure?" Ryuji wore a quizzical look.

"I can't explain any more details, not until we've come to a proper agreement," Morgana said, nodding to himself. "There is also something else that I need to tell you two. As you know, erasing a Palace would mean erasing the owner's distorted desires, right? But, we all need desires in order to live. Basic stuff like eat, sleep, fall in love, that sort of thing."

Erika raised an eyebrow while Ryuji frowned and spoke up. "And what does all that mean...?"

"It means," the cat creature lowered his voice. "If all of the desires were to vanish, it would be no different from someone who had shut down entirely. They could even die..."

"....." Erika's blood froze upon hearing the words and her face became unreadable. If they were to go along with this plan...

"... W-what?!" Ryuji squeaked with panic in his tone. "W-would that be our fault if that happens...?!"

"Just listen!" Morgana silenced the boy. "Aren't you willing to face those risks in order to change Kamoshida's heart?"

_/...../_

Erika tuned out the conversation and her mind began to rush back to the past. It was beyond the circumstances that brought her here to Shibuya. The memories were returning to a few years back, to the days of being in middle school. In the final days of her involvement with the gang she ran with...

_'I...-a good idea. We-...'_

_'The hell, Erika...? This pig-...!'_

_'...-barely breathing.....-enough?'_

_'..... -to die!'_

"... Erika? Erika!"

The girl's consciousness returned to the present with Ryuji and Morgana looking at her with concern. "Wh... What?"

"... Are you alright?" Morgana became concerned, noting that her withdrawal from the conversation was rather sudden.

"..... It's nothing," the girl said quietly. "But... Should we really do this if that means..."

The cat sighed, his impatience growing. "Is there any other choice? I don't think we'll get anywhere further... Think about your decision and think carefully." Although Morgana left the rooftop, the atmosphere was extremely heavy.

"Shit...!" Ryuji cursed. "He's making it all sound okay, but it's really not...!"

"..... You too, huh?" Erika looked at her friend with a pensive look.

"Yeah, I mean... I hate Kamoshida, but I don't wanna go and kill him...!" He ended up punching the ground in frustration and gritted his teeth. "Maybe I'm overreacting, but this is too much...!"

"....." Erika became silent again. Was this the answer she was looking for? She wanted to punish the king, but taking another person's life... That was a tall order, even for her. There had to be another way. Even the bomb idea that was promptly shut down by Morgana sounded better. But if that were to cause the teacher's death... She wouldn't dare think about the consequences.

"Okay..." Ryuji breathed in and out until he calmed down. "Remember when Takamaki was talking to you yesterday? She has a friend on the volleyball team, Shiho Suzui."

The white-haired girl blinked once, trying to recall the girl in question. She did recall seeing a black-haired girl with a ponytail talking to Takamaki once or twice but the rest of the details were vague. "... They're connected to Kamoshida in some way?"

"Yeah," The boy said, but he wore an apprehensive face. "I've known them since middle school, but there's no way that they're Kamoshida's type... The rumors are going crazy though."

"... About Suzui and that creep, right? They're just as bad as the ones with him and Takamaki... And we still don't know for sure if she stands with that prick."

Both of the teenagers ended up sighing in frustration. There had to be another way to deal with this.

"I don't know what else I can do, but I'll try to talk to Suzui tomorrow or something," Ryuji said, getting up. "You look like you need to go to bed."

Erika looked at him first and then at his hand. She was formulating some smart ass remark, but he did have a point. The past several minutes had drained her entirely. "... Yeah, I won't even argue with that." She grabbed his hand and pulled herself up with Ryuji's help. "I'll try to think of something too, but I honestly don't know what else we can do..."

There had to be a way to punish the King without the risk of taking his life. If there wasn't, Erika wasn't sure if she would continue this path that life had taken her to...

~*~

**Friday, April 15th 2016**

 

The morning classes had arrived the next day, but to Erika, she could not pay attention. It was hard to listen to Ushimaru's lecture about the Japanese government when more important things were on her mind. Was the risk of changing Kamoshida's heart too much? Even with his disgusting character, was death really worth it? If she, Ryuji, and Morgana chose to do whatever they wanted without thinking things through, they would be no better then the so-called king himself...

She vowed to Arsene that she would not hesitate to defend an innocent person's life. What about the guilty...?

"Have you made up your mind, Erika?"

The girl looked down at the opening of her desk and noticed that Morgana was peeking out and looking at her. She jumped slightly but barely made a sound. Still feeling annoyed by his suggestion to go with his plan, her frown was more intense.

"I know you don't want to risk it when there's a chance that he might not live, but there's really no other option. My suggestion is probably the only way."

Before Erika could tell the cat to go away, Ushimaru stopped his lecture and looked around the classroom slowly. "Hmm... Was that a cat just now...?"

Morgana began to panic and he crammed himself further into Erika's desk. "M-meow!"

Erika gave the cat creature a deadpan look. _/I swear if you make that damn teacher come near me, I'm so outing you./_

"So, the rumors of a cat in the school are true..." The stern-looking teacher was not going to have anything interrupting him. "Settle down and be quiet! We're in the middle of a lecture here!"

When the teacher resumed, Erika's phone vibrated. She pulled it out silently and noticed that it was none other then Ryuji texting her.

 **» SAKAMOTO:** I couldn't find Suzui this morning... And I ran out of other ideas... Man, what the eff are we gonna do?

 **» SHIROKAWA:** You're not cutting class, are you?

 **» SAKAMOTO:** What? Hell no! I really want to, though. There's gotta be something we can do about Kamoshida.

 **» SHIROKAWA:** Thinking about all that now isn't gonna do us any good.

 **» SAKAMOTO:** Ugh... But that's all I can think about. Do we really have to follow what that cat said? Damn that furball...

"Well, if he only knew I was reading that," Morgana whispered with slight sarcasm in his tone.

Erika quietly huffed and placed her phone back in her pocket. Maybe she should try to not think too much about the situation with Kamoshida and focus on Ushimaru's lecture, with maybe being a strong word. But before the girl could listen in...

"H-huh...? Wh-what's that?!" One of the male students suddenly stood up and looked at the window on his right side.

"Hey, sit down! This is a classroom, I will not-"

"... O-oh god, she's gonna jump...!" A female student interrupted Ushimaru when she was looking at her right as well. More students turned to their right as well to see the commotion. Erika barely got a glimpse of who it was until...

"... Suzui...?!" Mishima whispered in a panic.

Takamaki immediately stood up from her seat and her eyes widened in horror. "... Sh-... Shiho?!"

"Back in your seats! Do not leave the-"

Disobeying the teacher's words, Takamaki and a number of other students began to run out of the class. Erika didn't know her or her friend personally, but they were both tied to the rumors involving Kamoshida. She glanced down at Morgana and whispered to him, "Stay here, I'll be back." Without receiving a confirmation from the cat, she also ran out to the hallway.

Takamaki was glued to the window as were numerous students to other windows. It was there that Erika saw a horrible image she would not forget anytime soon. A girl with a black ponytail, Shiho Suzui, was standing outside of the rooftop's fence, holding on. Her face was a dreadful mixture of despair and emptiness. Before anyone could do something, Shiho had let go of the fence and fell forward.

Loud screams could be heard in the hall and the chatter intensified. This was something that no one should ever have to witness. Despite multiple teachers telling everyone to return to the classrooms, their demands had fallen on deaf ears. Takamaki slowly backed up from the window, her hands covering her mouth and the fear on her face fresh.

"..... Wh-why...? No...! Shiho...!!" The blonde girl almost pushed Erika out of the way when she bolted down the hallway.

The white-haired girl looked down at the direction Takamaki went when she took off. Ryuji emerged from a cluster of students and he noticed the blonde girl heading downstairs. Erika ran ahead when she saw him. "C'mon, Ryuji! We gotta go!"

"Huh, Erika?! Did you saw-?!"

"Talk later! Courtyard! Now!"

~*~

"Hey! Move it! Get the hell outta my way!"

Erika was shouting at lingering students to move while she and Ryuji were trying to reach the area where Shiho's body was. By the time the two reached the area, there were paramedics on the scene and Takamaki was looking at her friend. From what Erika could tell, Shiho was still alive but she barely had any life left in her...

"Shiho?! Shiho, please talk to me!" Takamaki tearfully petitioned her friend.

"... Ann...?" Shiho could barely talk but she tilted her head towards the blonde girl. "..... I... I'm sorry..."

Erika couldn't hear the remainder of the conversation. However, she gauged the reaction that Ann received when Shiho told her something that must have been significant. Suddenly and more urgently, the dark-haired girl slipped into unconsciousness and the paramedics had loaded her into the ambulance without delay.

"....." Erika was unable to process anything. This was all too sudden. Deducing from the visible bruises, the kneepads, and the rumors of her and Kamoshida had pointed out the fact that she was one of the volleyball players. This connection became more apparent when she noticed that Mishima was holding back something when he ran off.

Ryuji also noticed this and his eyebrows furrowed. "That was Mishima...! D'ya think he's acting weird?"

"Not think," Erika said sharply. "He's gotta be hiding something. We'll get him to talk this time."

The delinquent boy nodded when he clenched his fists. "This time, he's not gonna run away from us!"

With the teachers trying to bring order to the chaos, both teenagers slipped out of the courtyard and pursued Mishima's trail. They must discover the connection between all this and Kamoshida. This time, failure was not an option.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> "I am Thou... Thou art I...  
> Thou hast acquired a new Power...
> 
> With the birth of the Fool Persona,  
> I have obtained the blessing of the winds  
> that will lead to thine freedom and hidden power..."


	7. Chapitre Six – La Fureur D'une Femme

**Friday, April 15 2016**

 

Mishima tried to return to his class, but before he could even leave the Practice building, two pairs of hands reached out and grabbed him. Erika and Ryuji gripped each of the boy's arms and they dragged him to the far corner of the building while wearing serious expressions.

"Don't try to run, Mishima," the girl warned him. "We want you to talk. Now start talking."

"Ow...!" The blue-black haired boy gingerly rubbed one of his arms. "That hurts!"

"Why'd you run like that?!" Ryuji began the interrogation. "There's something you know!"

"I... I wasn't trying to run..." Mishima feebly said.

This answer did not satisfy both teenagers and Ryuji punched the locker next to him to make a point. "She jumped and tried to kill herself!"

"Both of you are part of the volleyball team," Erika pressed on. "You have to know something that caused Suzui to make that awful choice!"

"... L-leave me alone..." The lanky boy felt like he was shrinking under the intense stares.

The girl ended up sighing in frustration. "... Look, we're not trying to rat you out or get yourself into deep shit with Kamoshida. But we have to know and you're the only one who can tell us."

"She's right," Ryuji spoke up. "We're not gonna get you busted, man."

Mishima was initially silent, weighing his options carefully. After a few minutes of silence, he finally talked. "... Suzui... She was... She was called out by Mr. Kamoshida...!"

Both teenagers were stunned into silence. "... Wait, what?!" Ryuji shouted.

"... I was called to his office a lot of times too," Mishima continued his confession. "It wasn't just me or Suzui either... If he was ever in a bad mood, he'd choose someone to summon... And he would beat them."

Erika's anger was returning. "So that asshole really was using physical punishment...!"

"But yesterday..." The boy frowned. "He had summoned Suzui to his office for no reason... I didn't think she made any mistakes or did something... He seemed to be really irritated by something, so it... Must've been worse than usual..."

The color on both Erika and Ryuji's face drained when the horrific realization dawned on them. "He wouldn't...!" The girl breathed out a whisper mixed with anger and disbelief. To think a teacher would have the nerve to do something like that to a girl...!

"That... That fucking asshole!" Ryuji bellowed. He spun on his heel and ran upstairs.

"Is he... Is he going to confront Mr. Kamoshida in his office...?" Mishima asked when concern began to sprawl on his face. "B-but... He's going to get himself...!"

Erika gritted her teeth. "Shit! That idiot's gonna get himself hurt!" She looked at the lanky boy one last time. "I don't care what you do, but don't get involved in this any further. We'll take it from here." Without waiting for a response, she bolted upstairs. "Ryuji!"

Mishima watched the girl take off after the blonde delinquent. He thought to himself carefully and soon approached a decision. His legs began to take off after Erika.

By the time Erika reached the PE office, Ryuji was shouting at Kamoshida. It was then that she noticed that he was about to strike him. "Stop!" The girl reached out and grabbed his arm with both of her arms and latched onto them.

"E-Erika?!" Ryuji stammered. "The hell?! Why're you stopping me?!"

"Oh? Your friend is trying to prevent you from doing something reckless?" Kamoshida raised his eyebrows in surprise when he spun around in his chair to face them. He then arrogantly chuckled. "How cute. I feel bad for her, though, for associating with worthless scum like you. Then again, you two are like peas in a pod. She's not any better herself with her criminal record and such."

The girl felt her anger boiling up again, but she ignored his comments and glared at the teacher. "You really did do something to Suzui, didn't you?!"

"I have no idea what you're talking about," the teacher said nonplussed.

"What you did, Mr. Kamoshida..." All three individuals looked and noticed that Mishima was standing behind both Erika and Ryuji. "... What you did... Wasn't coaching..."

The teacher's face darkened with a dangerous aura when he glared at the boy. "... What did you just say, Mishima?"

Mishima felt that he was a point of no return, but he continued. "You order me to call Suzui... And what you did... You weren't 'coaching' her at all, you...!"

Kamoshida did not let up his glare. "How presumptuous of you. For all three of you to go and make bold and baseless claims like that to me. Me, of all people!" He stood up and towered over them. "We just got a call from the hospital about Suzui's condition. She has fallen into a coma and her chances of recovery are very slim... How does that make you three feel?"

All three teenagers reacted with dismayed looks. They looked at each other in disbelief and were trying to find the words.

"Ah, it is a shame," Kamoshida pinched the bridge of his nose. "I heard that there's no chance of her getting better... Poor girl."

"No...!" Mishima held his head in anguish. "That... can't be...!"

"You goddamn...!" Ryuji tensed up and he wanted to lunge at the teacher, but Erika restrained him.

"Ryuji, no! Calm down!" Erika ordered the boy while refusing to let go of him.

"Heh," Kamoshida was amused by the growing tension mounting before him. "Why not just attack me? It can be another case of 'self-defense'! Even you can lay a hand on me, Shirokawa!" He then stopped and then mocked her. "Ohhh, that's right! Even if you were to slap me, you can't! Of course, you can't."

Somewhere in Erika had snapped and she let go of Ryuji's arm. She was seething when she stepped forward and gave a dangerous glare to Kamoshida instead of giving him what he was overdue. "I'll make sure that you get what you deserve."

"Hmph, your threats won't do you any good," the teacher smirked. "It is too bad that you're a criminal, or else you would have the perfect body for volleyball." She could've sworn it, but Erika saw him licking his lips slightly.

"What was that you goddamn pervert?!" It was Erika's turn to raise her arm up to punch him in the jaw, but suddenly, Mishima had grabbed her arm while Ryuji pulled her back. "H-hey!"

"Don't do it, Shirokawa...!" The downtrodden boy pleaded. "I-It's not worth it..."

"Mishima's right!" Ryuji shouted. "We can't have you getting into trouble!"

Kamoshida's expression became serious while turning back around to his chair. "You are already in enough trouble, Sakamoto. As of this moment, you, Shirokawa, and Mishima will be expelled. I'm reporting you all at the next board meeting."

"Wha-?!"

"Y-you...!"

"You... You can't make a decision like that...!"

The teacher simply turned around, placing his glare particularly at Mishima. "Yes, I can. Who would seriously consider what any of you have to say? You also threatened me, Mishima. You're just as responsible as the other two."

Mishima was taken back by the words. "Wha...?"

"Hmph, you're a talentless waste of space, but have you wondered why I've kept you around?" Kamoshida did not let up his glare. "You act like a victim, but it was you who had leaked Shirokawa's criminal record, didn't you?"

Erika had mentally stopped in her tracks and she slowly looked over at the boy in question. "What...?"

Mishima looked downward with despair on his face. "... I-I'm sorry, Shirokawa... He made me do it... I had no other choice..."

Kamoshida nasally cackled while turning back around to his desk. "Now, are we done here? You're all done for. I have taken your futures away from you. Now get out of my office."

Ryuji was appearing to explode. "I can't believe this son of a bitch is getting away with this!"

Erika had to swallow down her anger and pulled both the delinquent and Mishima out of the office. "C'mon. We'll make that asshole eat his words!"

"What was that?!" Kamoshida turned around again but he saw the three barely escaping. Unamused and unmoved by Erika's words, he simply turned around muttering to himself.

When the three reconvened in the hallway, Mishima was still upset. "... I... I'm so sorry... I didn't want to do that to you, Shirokawa...!"

Erika managed to take a deep breath in order to calm herself. "..... I know the truth now, Mishima. I'm not pissed off at you. I know who to be pissed at. But... I told you to stay out of our business. If you did that, you wouldn't be expelled."

"..... I know," the lanky boy said quietly. "..... But... A part of me feels responsible for Suzui... I felt that it was because of me that she...!"

"You stop that!" Ryuji thundered. "You can't blame yourself for what happened! It's all that goddamn asshole's fault!"

"....." Mishima became quiet but he took a deep breath. "... I... I need time to think... My head hurts right now... I'm sorry..." Feeling defeated, he began to slowly walk back to his classroom.

The remaining teenagers were unable to produce any more words to each other. Sometimes, words such as 'it was going to be okay' did not feel like such.

~*~

After a considerable amount of time, the school was done for the day and the students were free to leave. However, Erika and Ryuji lingered in their usual spot at the courtyard with Morgana. After a painfully silent moment, the boy broke the atmosphere by slamming his fist on the vending machine. "We can't waste any more time! We need to go to that other world and beat the living hell out of that prick!"

Morgana grumbled while rolling his eyes. "We're not going to beat him up! We're simply stealing his distorted desires!"

"Though he does deserve an ass-kicking," Erika admitted.

The cat sighed in frustration. "... I'm going to assume that you two made up your mind? That if we were to steal the treasure, he might suffer a mental shutdown?"

"... I have," Ryuji voiced his confirmation first. "Someone almost died because of him and he doesn't give a flying shit. I don't care what happens to him anymore."

"... And you, Erika?" Morgana turned to the white-haired girl.

"....." The question of morality weighed heavily on her again. Her opinion was similar to Ryuji's, but... The obstacle of the idea of Kamoshida dying was persistent. This may not affect her now, but what about later? In the end, a life was all that someone has. Regardless of how awful they may be... If they did not have their life, what else did they have? More importantly, who was she to decide if someone should live or die?

Ryuji became impatient. "What else is there to decide, Erika?"

"..... Morgana. You said that a mental shutdown is possible, but not completely guaranteed, right?" Erika turned her head to the cat.

"... Yes," the cat said. "But this is the only way to-"

"I know," Erika stopped him from saying the same spiel. "I do realize that this is the only way. I still don't know about the possibility that he might die because of us. But... I also agree with Ryuji. He is responsible for what happened to Suzui. So... I want to make a deal for your deal."

"Huh...?!" Ryuji was shocked to hear this.

"A deal...?" Morgana tilted his head to the side.

"..... I'll help you steal the treasure. However, if he does suffer a mental shutdown and ends up dying, then I don't want any part of that other world anymore."

It felt like the world had become silent, with Ryuji unable to spit out any words. Morgana appeared equally shocked, trying to form a somewhat coherent sentence.

"... B-but... Y-you... You're already part of my master plan...!" the cat creature sputtered. "Th-then...! But I can't promise that he won't suffer-"

"Then that means that we should only steal his distorted desires, right?" Erika said, not budging. "If we're gonna do this, we're gonna do it right. I know that Kamoshida is an unforgivable asshole, but I don't think I can handle the thought of taking someone's life, let alone be presented with that idea. Not again."

Both Ryuji and Morgana looked at her with surprise. This was different from what they've seen from her thus far. It should be no surprise that she admitted that she was violent in her middle school days, but... "... What'dya mean 'not again'?" Ryuji asked. "A-are you talking about your-"

"Stop," Erika commanded. "... I don't want to talk about that. But, yeah, Morgana. Do we have a deal or not?"

Morgana was now torn by her proposal. Erika watched him carefully while he was thinking to himself. There were a lot of things that he did not know about her, but she could say the same thing about him. After mulling over the proposal, the cat ended up conceding. "..... Alright, Erika. As much as I don't want to lose you for my master plan, I will respect your choices. It would be awfully rude as a gentleman for me not to."

"... Thank you," Erika said, relaxing slightly. "So, I guess that means that I accept."

"Then it's settled," Morgana nodded.

"Hey, guys?"

All three turned their heads to a new voice, which belonged to a depressed-looking Ann. "... Is it true that you two are getting expelled?"

Erika didn't greet the girl with a scowl, but she frowned slightly. Ryuji groaned with irritation when he realized that the rumor mill was running at top speed. "Is everyone talking about it now? That damn asshole's at it again..."

Ann began to speak again. "... I know that we're not on good terms, but hear me out." She mostly directed this at Erika. "Kamoshida is an awful person who needs to be put in his place. I can't just sit back and do nothing. Not with what happened to Shiho...!"

The white-haired girl blinked once. Did this admission confirm that she was not on Kamoshida's side? "So the rumors about you two were just spurred on by Kamoshida himself...?"

Ann was hesitant but solemnly nodded in confirmation. She then tightened her fists. "I've had enough...!"

"So, why'd you come all the way back?" Ryuji grumbled. "Was it just for that?"

The blonde girl took a deep breath. "If you're gonna deal with Kamoshida... Let me in on it, too."

Both teenagers were taken back by this proposition from Ann. Erika recovered first, with obvious facts flooding in her mind. "... No. You and Suzui are victims, I get that. But between me and this guy, this doesn't involve you. Stay out of our business."

Ann's eyebrows knitted downward. "I am just as involved in this! I-"

"Didn't you hear Erika?!" Ryuji butted in. "Like she said, don't get in our way!"

The blonde was rendered to silence and she glared at the two. With no other words to say, she ran off.

After a moment of silence, Morgana spoke up. "... You two were kind of harsh on her."

"We don't need any more people getting involve with us," Erika bluntly said, crossing her arms. "And we really can't bring her to that other world."

The cat creature looked at the direction that Ann took off. "... I hope that she'll be okay. Such a strong and beautiful girl..." He then realized that he had trailed off with the two teenagers looking at him and he shook his body. "R-right. Anyway! Once we crossed over to the other world, we'll treat each other as Phantom Thieves, so be ready!"

"Huh?" Ryuji scratched his head. "Phantom Thieves...?"

"Yep!" Morgana grinned with enthusiasm. "Those who sneak in and stylishly steal the treasure! That's what we are!"

"Hm," Erika uncrossed her arms. "Sounds fancy."

"So cool!" The blonde delinquent grinned but then a serious expression formed on his face. "Time to show that asshole!"

With newfound determination, the three packed up and Morgana took refuge inside of Erika's bag. They walked to the alley that was across from Shujin. Unbeknownst to them, however, someone was following them...

~*~

They had reached the castle once more and they quickly made their way to a previous safe room. Morgana appeared to have remembered something, so he quickly arranged a small meeting.

"I think it's best that we use code names from here on out!" The cat suggested.

"Uh... why?" Ryuji asked.

"There's no telling what would happen if we used our real names inside of the Palace," Morgana explained. "Besides, it'd be so stupid if a Phantom Thief used their real name! Let's think of one for Erika first."

"Hmmm..." Erika looked down at her attire. It was mostly black, for starters. But using a color for a code name sounded dumb, so she thought of another name. Her mask did sort of resemble a bird... "..... Birdie?"

"Wha-?!" Morgana was floored by the sheer suggestion. "That doesn't sound cool enough!"

"How about... White Hair?" Ryuji snickered but he retracted when he felt a familiar glare that would have burned his skin off. "J-just kidding!"

"You two need to take this more seriously," the cat groaned while rubbing his head. "How about... Joker?"

The two teenagers looked at him with surprise. "Uh... Why Joker?" Erika asked.

"Well, you are full of surprises, and you're actually quite reliable in battle," Morgana explained, seemingly confident in his choice.

"Hmmm... Alright, then I'm Joker," the girl confirmed. She then looked over at Ryuji. "You're next."

"How about... Thug?" Morgana suggested.

The delinquent narrowed his eyes at the cat. "You tryna pick a fight with me?! I can choose my own code name! Uh, lesse... I actually really like this mask, so..."

Erika nodded to herself. "So... Skull?"

Ryuji's face beamed upon the suggestion. "Ohhh, that actually sounds really cool! Alright! I'm Skull!"

"Fine..." the cat creature conceded, wanting to pick a different name for him. "So that leaves me?"

"Looks like it," the white-haired girl said, trying to think of a name. It was slightly more difficult to think of a name for him.

"What about... Mona?" Ryuji suggested. "It's an easy name."

"... Yeah, I like it too," Erika agreed.

"If you think it's easier to remember, then that's fine with me," Morgana puffed his chest up. "Alright! From here on out, we are the Phantom Thieves! We are Joker, Skull, and Mona!"

Despite remembering their deal that she might end up quitting the Phantom Thieves, Erika nodded in agreement. She clung on to the hope that they would succeed in making Kamoshida confess his sins without him dying.

~*~

The guard detail was tighter than ever as the Phantom Thieves navigated new areas of Kamoshida's castle. They had engaged in a few fights, but nothing they couldn't handle. During one particular fight against a blue woman-like creature with sparkly wings, it spoke up after she was knocked down by Joker.

"W-wait! You must be the intruders that King Kamoshida was talking about, right...?! I-I don't wanna die! Don't kill me, please!"

Joker didn't signal the team to finish the creature off but instead noticed that her coin purse was rather light. "... Fork over your money and maybe we'll let you go."

"Th-that's all you want?" The blue creature asked. "But, uhm... This is rather sudden, 'cause I don't have anything on me..."

"Seriously...?!" Mona cried out. "Uh... Well... Th-that's too bad for you, then. Time for you to go to hell!"

"Huh?! Wait!" It desperately protested. "C'mon, can't we work something out, please?! Don't kill me!"

"We're in a hurry," Joker's patience was wearing thin. "If you didn't wanna pick a fight with us, then you picked the wrong people to mess with."

"Ohhh! You sound pretty confident!" The blue creature complimented. "I especially like that in other girls! Girl power, y'know?! I'd think we'd be able to get along really well if we weren't enemies..." It then picked its head up in realization. "Whoa! I'm feeling different! I... I remember now!"

"H-huh?!" Mona was surprised to see the unfolding events while his aim with the slingshot was wavering. "Wh-what's going on?!"

"I don't belong to just King Kamoshida..." The creature rose up from the floor and smiled. "I am part of the sea of humanity's souls... I am thou, thou art I... I'm Pixie! Lemme go with you from now on!"

"... Uh, wha-?"

Before Joker could finish her sentence, the creature that was known as Pixie materialized into a ball of energy. Suddenly, the girl's mask radiated a gentle aura and the ball had thrust into the mask. Joker blinked in surprise when she learned that not only Arsene was within her, but now this Pixie was too...

"What the hell just happened?!" Skull shouted, his jaw hanging open.

"I-I have no idea...!" Mona was trying to wrap the unfolding events around his brain as well.

Joker noticed that the two were staring at her. "... What? Don't look at me, I don't know what happened either."

Whatever this new found power was, Joker found it advantageous during battle. Arsene had her limits, but she found that whenever the Shadows begin to beg for their life, the white-haired thief could use them to her advantage and have them become a Persona instead of bribing them for money or vital supplies...

Was Igor even aware of this kind of power within her?

~*~

The trio of Phantom Thieves had explored even further in Kamoshida's castle, engaging some enemies here and there. Joker was able to build up a small roster of Personas within her as well as some yen and small supplies. The group even managed to find yet another safe room, which they chose to take refuge in.

Skull stretched his legs and started to complain. "Aren't there more Shadows here than usual? This is starting to be a pain in my ass!"

Mona rolled his eyes. "It's because you two provoked Kamoshida!"

Joker shrugged. "Not like we can help ourselves since we're about to be expelled."

"But Skull does bring up a point," the cat creature said. "He is more guarded than usual... Remember that we cannot get caught too many times, or else we'll be dead for sure."

Joker nodded wordlessly while Skull wore a troubled look. "Ugh... Yeah, I don't wanna think about that. But anyway! You said earlier that we shouldn't rush in and beat the crap out of him, right? So how do we steal the treasure?"

"Since you've asked, we'll need to secure an infiltration route first," Mona explained.

"Huh...?"

"He means that we'll need a path to get to the treasure," Joker clarified to the male delinquent. "What's the point of trying to rush things if we don't have a way back to the real world?"

"Uh... That makes sense. I think..." Skull didn't really understand it entirely, but he knew the importance of taking their time at the least. "But man, they're really on our asses."

"That is what concerns me," Mona spoke up, wearing a frown. "It would be more difficult for the three of us to try to reach our goal at this pace..."

Before anyone else could talk, a distorted voice spoke up outside of the hallway. "This is most peculiar, why would the princess be at an odd place?"

Another voice boomed. "Does it matter? She does belong to King Kamoshida after all."

The three looked each other with odd expressions and they pressed their ears close to the door in order to eavesdrop the conversation.

"Hm... Maybe so, but I could have sworn that we were picking up on the readings of an intruder..."

"Regardless, we must let King Kamoshida know that we have retrieved her!"

Both Joker and Skull were puzzled by the recent conversation. "What did they mean by 'princess'?" the girl asked.

"I'm gonna go ahead and take a look," Mona said, slipping out of the safe room.

"Y'know, Erika," Skull began to speak. "Morgana claims that he lost his memories, but he knows how to infiltrate Palaces and junk like that right? Does that cat really have amnesia?"

The white-haired trickster gave him an unamused look. "Code names, remember?"

"O-oh! Crap, sorry!" the boy tripped on his words. "Uh... What was I again? Oh yeah, I'm Skull!"

"..... Really?"

"C'mon, Eri- I mean, Joker!"

Suddenly, Mona rushed back into the safe room with panic on his face. "This is not good!"

"Whoa, that was fast!" Skull said.

"Your friend with the blonde hair... Ann Takamaki, was it?" Mona had to pause to breathe. "Lady Ann... She's in danger! She's been abducted by Shadows!"

"What?" Joker was taken back by the news as well as Skull. "How the hell did she get here?"

"Was she following us? Dammit!" Skull cursed.

"If that's the case, then she must have access to the navigation app," Mona worriedly said.

"Dude, seriously?! Did that thing got put on her phone like mine?!" the boy exclaimed.

Joker sighed with irritation. "Goddammit... We better go rescue her. Let's get going."

~*~

With Mona's guidance, the Phantom Thieves embarked on a new mission- rescuing Ann Takamaki who had somehow entered the strange world and was captured by Shadows. Joker was not happy about having to stray from the original mission, but she had no choice. She and Ann might not get along, but that did not mean that the blonde girl deserved to die.

Joker utilized a distraction in form of banging on some nearby empty armor to get the attention of the guards. The ploy worked as a number of the Shadows emerged and ran off in opposite direction. Wasting little time, the trio slipped into a room. It was in there that Joker wished that she would burn this image from her memory.

"... The hell?!" The girl cursed while the other two were reeling. There were cognitive images of the female volleyball players touching themselves provocatively.

"Dude, this is seriously effed up..." Skull felt like gagging.

"What the heck is this?! Someone help me!"

Mona looked up first when he heard a girl's frantic voice and his eyes widened. "There's Lady Ann!"

Both Joker and Skull turned their attention to the plight of the blonde girl as well. "Takamaki!" Skull shouted while the three ran over to the bound Ann.

"Huh...?!" Ann was taken back by the appearances of the Phantom Thieves. "Who're you?! Wait... Sakamoto?! Is that you?!"

"The hell are you doing here?!" Skull was not pleased by the situation by any means.

"How should I know?!" Ann shouted. "What is this place?! Is this the school? Why did the school turn into this?!"

"You're being too damn loud, Takamaki," Joker scolded her while observing the restraints. "You're gonna attract the Shadows here."

"I-I'm freaking out, that's why!" The captured girl squirmed. "I'm gonna guess that you're Shirokawa under that mask..."

"More or less," the girl said, continuing her observation.

"Uh, j-just stay calm, Lady Ann...!" Mona feebly tried to calm Ann down.

Ann, however, gasped when she realized that the cat creature was actually talking. "What the-?! Oh my god, what is that?! It's a monster cat!"

"M-monster...?" Mona was taken back by the accusation.

"Y-you gotta calm down, Takamaki!" Skull shouted. "Or else they're gonna come back in an-"

Joker picked her head up when she heard a rustling of chains overlapped by heavy chain boots. Her budding danger senses were beginning to tingle when she felt impending danger closing in on them. "Holy hell, something's coming!"

With no further warning, a few guards stormed in and surrounded the Thieves and Ann. Joker tried to take them by surprise with her knife, but unbeknownst to her, a chain was lying in wait and it entangled the girl's ankle. The white-haired thief was suddenly hoisted up in the air, caught by surprise. "What the hell?!"

"Joker!" Both Skull and Mona rushed to the girl's aid. Before they could do anything, more guards poured in followed by the Shadow of Kamoshida himself. Two were standing close to Ann while a few more pointed their swords at the Phantom Thieves.

"You simpletons again..." the so-called king sighed in anger. "Just how many times are you going to come back? And I can't believe my own guards mistook this intruder for my Ann."

"K-Kamoshida...!?" Ann was both surprised and reviled by his outfit of choice, but then she became confused by his wording. "Wait, what did you mean by...?"

Upon Kamoshida motioning someone over with his finger, the cognition of Ann sauntered up to him while wearing a smile. The real Ann was shocked to see someone familiar clinging to the repulsive man like that, on top of wearing a skimpy pink leopard print bikini.

"You stay away from her, you son of a bitch!" Skull shouted, but before he could take action...

The guards that had Ann hostage pointed their swords at her neck. "Take one step and I'll kill her on the spot!" Kamoshida barked.

"Dammit...!" Joker wriggled around, trying to loosen the chain up. At this point, she was feeling the rush of blood to her head.

"Now... Are you afraid? Did you come here like these idiots because you're pissed at me?" Kamoshida smirked at the still-struggling Ann.

"This isn't funny!" Ann shouted. "Enough of the bullshit, Kamoshida!!"

"You know," the cognitive version of Ann spoke up to the kingly Shadow. "Talking back to you is sooo not cool."

"You're right," Kamoshida purred, placing a stray hand on his companion's rear. "By the way, that girl... Ah... What her name again? Doesn't matter, it's your fault that she jumped and tried to take her own life, you know."

Ann was speechless when he uttered those words to her. "... What...?"

"I've tried to make you my own, but you've been so reluctant to throw yourself onto me. So I had her take your place." Kamoshida finished his statement with an evil and perverted grin.

Joker was becoming dizzier, but the rush of anger was building up within. This was the kind of guy that she would have no problem pulverizing. "You..!"

"You... You bastard!!" Ann shouted, tears forming in her eyes. However, the guards stepped closer to her, causing her to choke back any more insults.

"Such a lively slave... The rest of you just sit back and enjoy the dismemberment. How should I tear you apart? Maybe by starting with your clothes...?" Kamoshida continued his lewd comments while the cognitive Ann simply giggled at him.

"No...!" Ann was reduced to sobs, feeling defeated. "This... This is what I deserve, isn't it...? This must be my punishment for... Oh god, Shiho... I'm so sorry..."

Mona was worried rightly for Ann, but he looked up and noticed that Joker stopped resisting as much. "Joker...? Are you okay?"

Joker was silent for a moment, but the inside of her soul raged a storm. People like Kamoshida must be punished accordingly and she finally felt some sort of connection to Ann. With her being the center of it all, the white-haired girl decided on something when a serious expression formed. "Hey! Takamaki! You're just gonna let this bastard win like this?! Fuck that! You gotta make this piece of shit pay for treating women like objects and garbage!!"

Kamoshida stopped his monologue and glared daggers at Joker. "You must be the first female to stand up against me, aren't you? Do you want to die that badly? Eh, it's too bad that you're not wearing a skirt in that outfit or-"

"Shut up."

The room became silent with attention focusing on Ann. She took a deep breath, appearing to be moved by Joker's words. "... She's right. You've done nothing but hurt other people... You've been toying with me for far too long... I can't stand this anymore...! You..." She raised her head up without fear and furrowed her eyebrows in anger at Kamoshida. "You've freaking pissed me off, you son of a bitch!!"

Once she spat her words at Kamoshida, her expression changed dramatically. Her eyes shifted from blue to golden and she began to convulse. She screamed in pain, rendering everyone else to silence. Joker recognized this pattern while watching this unfold. Similar to how she and Skull experienced this, Ann was awakening to her Persona.

After several seconds, the blonde girl slumped and her head drooped. It was then that she whispered, "... I hear you loud and clear... Carmen." She raised her head up in defiance and a red mask with feline features appeared on her face. "You're right! I won't hold back anymore!"

Ann slightly struggled, but she broke her restraints. With one hand, she reached for her mask. It was affixed to her face with force, but that did not stop her from gripping the mask. With one strong pull, she shrieked in agony when the mask tore much of her skin off her face, leaving a lot of blood behind. Again in a similar fashion to how Joker and Skull awakened to their Personas, a powerful burst of energy came forth and surrounded Ann. Kamoshida became unnerved by what was happening while the guards were backing up. Once the energies calmed down, a powerful woman-like figure appeared behind Ann. She had two smaller male figures with hearts for heads on chains and she wore a beautiful red and black gown with a rose motif. She also had two black twin drills and had a cigar in her mouth. When Ann opened her eyes and gave a vicious glare at Kamoshida, she was wearing a new outfit, consisting of a red catsuit and pink gloves with the cat-like red mask on her face.

Joker was beginning to lose her bearings. However, she noticed one of the guards being distracted by the new Persona. "Takamaki!"

Ann wasted no time when she charged forward and knocked a sword out of the distracted guard's hand. When she caught it mid-air, she slashed the chain that was holding Joker captive.

The white-haired thief landed hard on her side and winced. "Ow!" She rubbed the back of her head gingerly, but she was feeling vertigo when she sat up straight.

"Joker, are you okay?!" Mona cried out, checking her for any injuries.

"D-damn...!" Skull was impressed by Ann's mobility and what was transpiring.

"I've had enough of you, scumbag...!" The blonde girl pointed her finger at Kamoshida and then looked at her cognitive self. "Carmen!" The lovely Persona unleashed a fiery rage upon the fake version of Ann, her screams fading into nothingness as she melted into a heap of Shadow mass.

"Y-you... You bitch...!" The so-called King cursed while continuing to back away from the regrouping Phantom Thieves.

"You took everything away from Shiho, you scum!" Ann shouted, her resolve unyielding. "All you do is destroy other people's lives! Now... I'll rob everything from you!"

"How dare you raise your hand at King Kamoshida, you selfish lass?!" One of the guards barked while a few more were moving in closer. "That's enough of your insolence! You shall pay for denying him the love he deserves!" After speaking, the cluster of Shadows formed into a gigantic demon that sat on a toilet.

Ann rolled her eyes. "Don't make me laugh with that 'love' bullshit! That dirtbag only sees women as objects and prey!" She raised her hand up to her mask. "Let's give 'em hell, Carmen!"

Carmen obliged by unleashing a furious column of flames upon the demon. It survived the attack, but it started to burn and was twisting its body in agony.

When she finally regained her bearings, Joker got back up and ran forward. She was also a woman who was objectified by Kamoshida as well and that predator had to pay! Standing next to Ann, she ripped her mask off and summoned a new Persona to join in Carmen's wrath. "Jack-o'-Lantern!"

A pumpkin-headed Persona materialized behind Joker and with its lantern, it churned out equally powerful blasts of fire against the guard, ramping up the damage against him.

"To think...!" The demon struggled with his life fading. "To think that there would be some women who would rebel against King Kamoshida...!!"

"Pfft!" Ann fluffed one of her pigtails. "That guy is nothing but a pathetic loser!"

"Predators like him deserve to get his ass kicked!" Joker narrowed her eyes.

The demonic guard ended up dissolving into a shadowy mass when Kamoshida realized the situation he was in. Fearing for his life, he began to back up towards the door. "Oh shit..!"

Ann had to catch her breath when exhaustion was setting in. She picked her head up and noticed that the so-called king was retreating. "Wait...!" She wanted to chase after him, but she fell down on her knees.

"Man, why'd you come here?!" Skull shouted, annoyed by her all over again. "And how'd you do that?!"

Joker produced a deadpan look towards him while Mona narrowed his giant eyes. "Is that how you speak to a lady?" He turned his attention to the blonde girl. "Are you okay, Lady Ann?"

"Huh...? Lady Ann...?" She picked her head up and looked at Mona with a strange look on her face. "It's... It's really talking...! How? What is it?! And where the heck are we?! What is going on?!"

"U-uh..." the cat creature tried to find the right words to calm her down. "I-It's gonna be alright, Lady Ann! Just calm down!"

Ann, however, was not. She used Mona's head to push herself back on her feet. "How can I calm down after all this?! And... Huh?!" She looked down to finally notice that she was wearing a rather revealing catsuit. Feeling embarrassed, she covered her chest with her arms. "Why am I dressed like this?! Since when did I...?! Ugh, what the hell is going on here?!" She knelt back down again in vain attempt to cover herself up.

Joker allowed her to vent, understanding her confusion. After she was done, the white-haired thief walked over to her and offered her hand. "Take a deep breath and calm down. We'll explain everything."

"But for now, let's get outta here!" Mona shouted. "A search party will be here soon!"

"Rgh, and just when we were getting fired up...!" Skull gritted his teeth, but he had to agree with the cat. He also approached Ann and offered his hand. "Here, I'll help too."

When Ann ended up complying, the team wasted no time in escaping the castle.

~*~

The teenagers along with Morgana reached the train station that was in Aoyama-Itchome. Ryuji returned shortly with a couple of drink bottles, offering them to Ann and Erika. Morgana briefly popped his head out of Erika's bag and asked for a drink, which prompted the blonde delinquent to blink. This caused Ann to chuckle slightly.

"Are you calming down, Lady Ann?" Morgana asked.

Ann turned her head at the cat. "You're... Morgana, right? Huh, I'm really talking to a cat. Weird..." She then realized her mistake. "Oh wait, you said that you're not a cat. Sorry about that."

He wasn't offended by her words as he simply nodded. "I understand that you're confused. A lot has happened today. You must be exhausted from all this."

"You're right," the blonde girl said, taking a deep breath. "Honestly, I'm still in shock about what happened... And that power... Persona..."

"Since you have a Persona now, you'll be able to fight in that other world," Erika said after taking several sips of her drink. "What we're doing over there is that we were trying to make Kamoshida have a change of heart."

"I see," Ann said, soon furrowing her eyebrows. "Is that really true...? Can we make him confess his crimes?"

"It's worth a shot," Ryuji said, leaning on the wall. "The volleyball team's keeping quiet about all this and not a damn teacher or parent are doing anything at all. If we try to complain about this, we'll just get shot down."

"Not to mention that we're already threatened with expulsion," Erika frowned. "There's a lot to lose right now..."

"Oh shit," Ryuji's eyes widened. "I totally forgot that you got that criminal record, Erika! If that happens, you'd be seriously screwed!"

"... Yeah," the white-haired girl said, pushing her glasses up on her nose. "That's one of the reasons why we're going in with this plan. It's the only option we got."

Ann realized this as well. She proffered her support with determination in her eyes. "Then let me help you guys. I want to make him pay for what happened to Shiho...! The fact that he goes on like nothing happened is unforgivable!"

"Well, I'm all for you joining us," Erika said. "I want to make him pay as well. He even made a pass at me too, right before expelling me."

"Wait, he did that to you right in front of me and Mishima?!" Ryuji shouted. He dialed down the tone of his voice when he was given a dirty look by Erika. "Erk, sorry... But seriously?! Goddamn pervert...!"

Ann gripped her drink. "Disgusting bastard. He thinks he can get away with anything... I'm going to make him atone for his actions! Not just for Shiho... For everyone that he has ruined...!"

"Well, I'm glad that you've decided to join us, Lady Ann," Morgana attempted to change the mood. "We'll be able to steal the treasure more easily now."

"Thank you, Morgana. Well, we're partners from now on. I hope that we'll get along."

It was then that Ann joined the Phantom Thieves. With her, she would be a great asset. It was also nice to have a fellow girl to share a common goal with, Erika thought. Even though they had started off on the wrong foot, there was a possibility that they could begin a friendship that the white-haired delinquent did not see coming. Before the team dispersed, Morgana voiced that he needed a home. With the other two unable to take in a cat, the decision ultimately fell on Erika. She could already hear Sojiro complaining in the back of her mind after his sarcastic quip about bringing a cat home already.

Regardless, the Phantom Thieves now have more firepower in their campaign against Kamoshida. With greater things to lose, it was now or never.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> "I am Thou... Thou art I...  
> Thou hast acquired a new Power...
> 
> With the birth of the Lovers Persona,  
> I have obtained the blessing of the winds  
> that will lead to thine freedom and hidden power..."


End file.
